#dornsifeambassador

Humans (including USC students) require sustenance to maintain a healthy mind and body. Luckily enough for us, there are plenty of excellent dining options in and around USC’s campus! Today, I’ll give you a brief guide to our three on-campus dining halls: The Village, Everybody’s Kitchen, and Parkside.

The Village Dining Hall (surprisingly enough) is located in the USC village, just to the north of campus. This is the newest of the three dining halls, and it looks a heck of a lot like it’s from Harry Potter. Some tips for you: sit outside! There’s a lovely outdoor seating area that doesn’t get used too often. Make sure to get a scoop of ice cream on top of your crepe (there’s a crepe station there which is so sick). When the left side food line has Mac and cheese, make sure to put some extra shredded cheese on top for extra flavor. My favorite meals here are the vegetarian noodles, the ribs, the chicken wings, the ravioli, and the Bahn Mi!

Next up, we have Everybody’s Kitchen (also known as EVK). This location is centrally located just off of McCarthy quad, and (in my opinion) has the best places to sit. There are long tables both inside and out to eat, chat with your friends, and meet new people! Pro tip: make sure to go eat there every other Friday - they have amazing orange chicken. Like, for real. This is my favorite meal in any dining hall. If you are willing/able to consume meat, then please eat the orange chicken. Other good things at EVK are the veggie burgers, the hash browns (at breakfast), and the soft-serve ice cream (with sprinkles!)

As a prospective student, the only thing I knew is that I wanted to study history. I have always loved the subject, ever since elementary school. In second grade, we did a project where we drew ourselves as our dream profession. For me, I wanted to be an archaeologist who read a lot of history. I was most definitely unique in the sense that my drawing was of me with a mud-splattered, casual outfit, a brush in one hand, and a book that I titled Egypt in the B.C.E.’s in the other. I was obsessed with Ancient Egypt, stemming from a book I read about the discovery of King Tut’s tomb… This idea of discovery and puzzlement remained with me throughout grade school and into my university application process.

When it came to the application process, I knew what I wanted to study, but I did not know where I wanted to go. This was a unique position I found myself in… one where not many seniors in high school do. My process in becoming interested in USC was also strange in the sense that I only applied to schools West of my home (Kansas). I wanted a change of scenery, but without seasons… so Southern California seemed like a good place to escape the frigid winters of the midwest and northeast. Essentially, I ended up choosing to go to USC once I was accepted since it was the best school I got into, and my visit to the campus astounded me. It is a beautiful school with two vintage libraries and a great history department, what more could I want! However. There are things that I wish I knew more about before diving head-first into such a complex school.

First, I was a Spring Admit. I had no idea what that was before I got my yellow box and acceptance letter dictating my unusual status. As a prospective student, I wish I had done more research on the array of acceptance statuses at USC. Had I been aware of the Spring Admit program, I probably would have done more research on my options rather than dive straight into the abroad packet. Don’t get me wrong, I would not have traded my semester abroad for anything, but it was just incredibly sudden. As an 18 year old in Kansas, it was a big step to go from a smaller state to choosing to study in Rome, Italy. I wish I was aware of the possibilities when it came to being accepted into USC. Perhaps USC could do more advertising of this incredible opportunity that some students get to study abroad for their “deferred” first semester? I definitely recommend ALL prospective students to look into the variances in acceptances and the options for those situations and to be prepared if a letter of some sort does come.

Another thing I wish I was more aware of as a prospective student were the research and scholarship opportunities for history and other dornsife subjects. Since I was a spring admit, I was not as aware of the opportunities that many other students were. Not only are spring admits left in the dark, but other prospective students admitted in the fall may not be aware of the variety of activities that one can become involved in. I just learned my sophomore year that there is such a thing as a continuing student scholarship, where a student in Dornsife that has a certain GPA, and  falls into one of the categories of the scholarship options, can be granted $1,000 to $5,000 for their semester. This was incredible because I wasn't given any scholarships upon acceptance, so this was a nice addition to my attendance at USC that many others could benefit from. Not only did I not know about that, but I also did not know about the plethora of research opportunities for students. As a prospective student, I feel that it can be hard to find institutions that really encourage research and undergraduate research alongside faculty. USC actually does have great research opportunities, such as independent research that one can do over the summer working closely with a faculty member in their discipline. I was able to do this over the summer of 2020 after my sophomore year, when everything was moved online. Independent research from home was a great substitute for what I was planning on doing that summer, something that I think could be attractive to prospective students today. It may be good for students to know more about the independent research opportunities and also the guided research opportunities that USC does provide. Research has been one of my favorite activities that I've been involved with, and would love more students to be familiar with it!

Hey guys! My name is Andrew Leung, and I’m a current sophomore hailing from Fremont, CA. Here at USC, I’m majoring in GeoDesign with a minor in Gender and Social Justice. GeoDesign is one of our interdisciplinary majors at USC that combines the disciplines of architecture, public policy, and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology to create what I find to be a fascinating course of study.

Currently,  I’m working with the Spatial Sciences Institute in a partnership with the City of LA’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment to improve the city’s resilience programs and create an accessible web-based application to be used by the city’s 99 Neighborhood Councils (NCs). Our application is intended to help NCs around the city realize what their points of priority should be in issues of regional crisis (i.e. earthquake preparedness, climate change adaptation, education infrastructure, etc.) By far, my favorite thing about GeoDesign has been the opportunities that exist just because I am a student in the major, and I’m excited for all the upcoming potential ones that await me in the future!

Moreover, I’d like to say that in my last two semesters at USC, I’ve been lucky enough to have some pretty memorable experiences. I’ve gone snorkeling near Catalina Island after mulling over the changing state of climate change rhetoric at the USC Climate Forward Conference, camped out in Big Sur and the Carizzo Wildflower Plains during the superbloom with our 100% student-run outdoor adventure organization SC Outfitters, and planned and MC’ed the Fall 2019 New LGBTQ Student Orientation. Outside of USC, I also volunteer as an ambassador for Sofar Sounds, curating intimate music gigs in hubs around Los Angeles, directly interfacing with venue hosts, and working to create a magical night for our concertgoers. Oftentimes, as students, we forget how lucky we are to live in a city with so much incredible culture, and so I do my best to venture out of the USC ecosystem to remind myself of all the life that exists in the city of LA as a whole.

The humanities has a reputation for being a discipline without opportunities that are immediately recognizable and achievable for “cutting-edge” research. However, I find this misconception to be completely false and quite the opposite of my personal experience as a History and Latin American and Iberian Studies double major. In reality, research in the humanities is more attainable in a field that people dismiss as passive and uninteresting. I have been able to take classes, conduct independent research, and attend conferences that are exciting and producing fantastic new scholarship in history. All of this involvement is directly related to my membership in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) that supplies me with a stipend each semester and summer to conduct my own research. In addition, MMUF provides opportunities to attend summer programs for learning research writing and methodologies.

More importantly, MMUF specifically supports underrepresented minorities in their pursuit of obtaining a PhD in the humanities and social sciences. Being of Salvadoran and Irish heritage, my background guides my research interests in the legal history of race in the United States and Latin America. Through MMUF and my passion for rewriting marginalized histories and those relegated to oblivion in history, I have been able to reverse historical narratives about Native peoples and bring Afro-Salvadoran and indigenous stories out of the dark. My faculty mentor, Edgardo Pérez Morales, has been instrumental in guiding me in my pursuit of knowledge and in shaping my historiographical methodologies. I know that this can sound incredibly boring to people not interested in the humanities, but I would like to clarify that research opportunities do exist for students in the humanities and that our work is incredibly important.

Hey y’all! My name is Alyzeh Hussain and I’m a sophomore from Houston TX (and Karachi, Pakistan), double majoring in Math and Cognitive Science! Fun Fact: I was born in Houston but when I was 6 months old my family moved to Karachi, Pakistan. I spent most of my childhood in Karachi until I was 11 when we moved back to Houston. So I call both Houston and Karachi my home!

In addition to being a Dornsife Ambassador, I am a Research Assistant at the Brain and Music Lab on campus, which is one of the many labs within the Brain and Creativity Institute and I a member of Remedy Through Music which is a service organization on campus. I also serve as the Wellness Chair in my residential college, Nemirovsky & Bohnett and work as a Student Ambassador at the Admission Center, so you might see me walking backwards around campus talking to prospective students and other guests.

What I love most about USC is the support for interdisciplinary studies and combinations that cross over different fields. For example, many people wouldn’t think of Math and Cognitive Science as two academic areas that compliment each other but I have actually been able to apply a lot of things that I’ve learned in each field to the other. 

Last spring, I had the opportunity to spend an entire semester in Washington, DC through the Dornsife DC program at USC. As a Political Science major and self-admitted history nerd, I was thrilled to explore a new city filled with so many professional and educational opportunities. I was also a little scared, though - of the distance, of interning for the first time, and of enduring my real winter with actual snow.  

All of my fears were soon put aside in a few weeks, however, as I fell in love with the city and my program. I came to DC with 20 other USC students and our schedules were intense. We interned during regular business hours, from 9-5, and then we took our classes in the evening from 6-9. My peers were just as passionate about politics and international relations as I was, and even when we were outside of class, we frequently sought out museum visits and presidential campaign town halls in our free time. We took full advantage of the world-class museum scene the city has, with my personal favorite being the National Portrait Gallery. We also explored DC’s restaurants thoroughly, and while nothing could ever beat the Los Angeles food scene, I still sometimes think about the avocado toast at one of my and my roommates’ go-to brunch places, An Unconventional Diner (highly recommended!).

The immersion into politics and international relations continued at my spring internship. I was an Event Planning Intern at the Atlantic Council, a foreign affairs think tank. The activities which occur at any think tank are incredibly wide-ranging and it gave me the chance to try all sorts of things. In my time there, I helped plan events ranging from the Council’s annual black tie gala to a collegiate-level cyber strategy competition. Perhaps most memorably and terrifyingly, I coordinated a private luncheon for the Ambassador of Mexico to the US. It went off without a hitch and really helped me to feel confident in the responsibilities that were delegated to me.

There were great professional opportunities within my internship, but the ones I received through USC were just as exciting. The professor who leads the DC program arranged visits for us at the State Department, National Security Council, and the CIA. While at these locations, we both toured the spaces and met with staffers there. We weren’t just sitting in a classroom hypothesizing why and how certain national security actions occur - we actually got to ask the decision makers in government ourselves. It was an experiential component of my education I could have only received through USC.

I enjoyed my time in Washington so much that I, along with many of my peers, chose to extend my time there through the summer. From May to August I interned in Congressman Gil Cisneros’ office as a Legislative and Press Intern. It was a deeply formative experience as I took in the atmosphere on Capitol Hill, and it helped me to develop my plans for after graduation much more firmly.

Hey everyone! My name is Miracle Mitchell and I am a sophomore at USC. I am from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania so the warm weather of Los Angeles definitely took some getting used to but now I love it! The city is beautiful, and you can most often catch me skateboarding through campus with a latte popsicle (you can find them at Trader Joes and they are absolutely the BEST thing I have ever purchased. 10/10. HIGHLY recommend) in hand.

I am majoring in East Asian Languages and Cultures with a language emphasis in Chinese though I plan to begin studying Korean as well in the upcoming semester. I am also on the pre-law “track” (there are technically no required courses to be considered pre-law at USC!) and minoring in Sports Business and Law. When applying to colleges, diversity of every kind was incredibly important to me so specifically being a part of Dornsife has 100% had a positive impact on my life here. Just this school itself makes up 160+ majors so not only am I able to explore every avenue of my interests as far as education is concerned, I am constantly meeting new people with completely different backgrounds and personal tastes which definitely makes going here more fun and exciting.

In addition to being a Dornsife Ambassador, I am also a student manager for USC’s baseball team. Being able to focus on my love of sports and baseball in general in a collegiate setting has been amazing for me and has really influenced what I plan to do in the future. Baseball specifically has been a staple in my life since the very beginning so the opportunity to work with the team and coaching staff has been incredible (Fun fact for all you fellow baseball fans – I share a birthday with Yogi Berra!). I also am a member of USC’s Environmental-Core (E-Core) club which is an activism organization that goes around campus as well as the greater Los Angeles area doing environmentally beneficial community service. This year we have done a lot of planting which is tons of fun and a great way to unwind after a tough week of classes! In addition, I am part of PAWS which stands for Providing Animals With Shelter and our main function is to volunteer at animal shelters around the city and help them with cleaning, socializing, adoption events, and anything else they need. Basically, it’s a free excuse to hang out with dogs, cats, and bunnies on the weekends!