#humansofcas

Ivan (Tsz Kin) Yuen (CAS’20)

Early Decision Incoming Freshman, Ambitious Traveler, Ceramicist, Lover of Cheeseburgers

“I like ceramics a lot. But since I’m from a traditional Chinese Family and society, my parents don’t support me doing ceramics. They don’t think it’s a realistic thing to do. But it’s really my passion and it forces me to be more creative. If I can be a potter and start my own studio, make my stain, sell my pot, that will be great. 

When I was little, my mom made me do painting, like two-dimensional stuff, but I didn’t like it and felt like it was boring. I really like 3D sculpture, that’s what I like the most. Ceramics is not as difficult as 2D because the basic thing is to make them symmetrical and I can apply my geometry and math knowledge to it. Doing ceramics can make me more patient when solving a problem, so I like to work by myself quietly in a room and make my own stuff. I really think ceramics is a meaningful thing because I’m combining soil, water, and fire to make something we use every day. And I think that’s very beautiful of a human being to make their own tools. Doing ceramics can help me to be more patient and more concentrated when doing other works.” 

“What do you think about America so far?” 

“I think America is a place for people with different backgrounds, similar to my experience in Hong Kong where I stayed with a lot of people from different cultures, I think this place can give me more opportunity to explore more and broaden my horizons. 

I like American food. I like cheese and meat. Juicy. Oily. That’s what I like. Unhealthy food. It makes me feel good. My favorite American dish is probably Shake Shack. I like cheeseburgers.” 

“What is one thing you think you’ll miss the most about high school?” 

“Probably the relationship between friends. In college life, we have a bigger population, it will be harder for me to make new friends. In my school there are only 300 people, I know everyone, but at BU, there are people with different backgrounds, people with different ages... it’s more diverse so it’s going to be harder for me to adapt.” 

“What is something you’re most proud of or a struggle you’ve overcome?”

“One thing I’m most proud of is that I have a lot of friends from different places because I like to be social, not do stuff on my own. I like to spend time with my friends and like to build good relationships with them. From time to time, they help me and I give my helping hand to them, and then these relationships really helped me to create my own self and help my daily life to improve and I’m hoping to continue this kind of relationship in college. 

Danica Drezner (CAS ‘17)

International Relations Major, Transfer Student, Future Social Entrepreneur, Vagabond, Optimist, Ant Eater

“If you could get paid to do anything for the rest of your life, what would you do?”

“Frolic. Just travel and frolic the world. I love talking to people, like talking to strangers and just picking up conversations. if I can get like an Anthony Bourdain gig, where I’m just hopping around places and always meeting new people, that would be great. My favorite part of traveling is being completely immersed. I love living with a host family. So if I can travel and meet people from all over the world, I think that would probably be it. I love making friends and talking to people.” 

“Is it difficult leaving your family for a while?” 

“It’s terrible, but it’s really easy for me. The thing is, my family has always been pretty split. When I graduated high school, my mom moved to Pennsylvania with my twin baby brothers, and my 13-year-old sister, and my step dad, but my dad is still in Las Vegas - where I’m from - and so is my grandma and all of my friends from high school. My grandma always called me the vagabond child because I’ve always been hopping around everywhere, so I kind of just have a vagabond spirit in that sense.” 

“What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?” 

“I mean, I ate ants last week, if that counts? I’m happy to admit that was my first time. We were in the amazon rain forest and they have these ants that taste like lemons, living within the branches and these trees are notorious for killing other trees around them, I don’t really know the details of the ecology... Our tour guide broke a branch in half and there were these little ants living inside and he’s like ‘Do you wanna try it?’ and I said ‘Sure,’ so I dabbled in some jungle cuisine last week.” 

“What are you most grateful for?” 

“Being surrounded by amazing energy all the time. Like great people and being able to be in an environment where I really feed off of other great people and where I have great opportunities to have experiences in life and where I really get to live it. My mantra is ‘What a time to be alive.’ So I think I’m grateful to be alive. I think that’s what it is.

“How do you view today’s society?”

“I view society today as confused. We are moving into a globalized world where everyone is a little bit more connected so we get to learn more about each other now. I’m just an optimistic person, so it breaks my heart to see all of the tragedies going on around the world. I keep up with the news, I’m an international relations major, so... hearing all these things, like the terrorist attacks in Paris, what’s going on with the Syrian Refugees, it breaks my heart. But I think that those occasions blind us from the true empathy that really is in the world, and just the little acts of kindness and the stuff that we don’t get to see everyday that you just see walking around, I’m very optimistic about the world in that regard. Seeing actions such as the climate change conference that was in Paris recently, and seeing people voice up against political actions and seeing our generation, with the political campaigns today, seeing more people our age voicing their opinions and saying what they want to see changed in the world, it makes me more optimistic. I like to see the beauty in things as much as I can. 

“What’s a struggle that you’ve overcome in your life?”

Stacy Ulrich

Program Director of the CAS Office of Student Programs & Leadership, Avid Bike Rider, Midwestern Transplant, Proud Corgi Parent

“I just love biking because it gives me a sense of freedom and excitement, in what could otherwise be a very mundane, boring commute. I just love the feeling of being outside, I like to get as much sunlight as possible, you know, mostly being inside for my job, it’s nice to have... cause it takes me about half an hour to 45 minutes to ride, so when I ride to and from work, that’s a good hour and a half that I get to be outside, that I wouldn’t otherwise have been outside. 

This is probably dangerous, I wouldn’t recommend other people do this, but I also listen to podcasts, like as I’m riding. I mean, it’s dangerous to ride period. Listening to podcasts probably makes it more dangerous, but it makes it really enjoyable.

I’ve done a couple of triathlons, so I did a bunch last summer, and that’s really fun. So the longest one I did last summer was an Olympic distance, which is like just shy of a mile swim, and then a 25-mile bike and then a 10k, so a 6-mile run... and that was really cool. it was called the Lobsterman and it was in Maine, so it ended with a lobster bake, so you finished and got this giant lobster to eat. And unlimited beer. So that was cool.

Elly Hu (CAS’16)

Senior Advisor for BU miXx Cover K-Pop Dance Group, Neuroscience Major, Productions Coordinator of Boston University Filipino Student Association.

“I feel like I’ve looked forward to college my entire life and never looked past it. And I’m at a point where I’m like, ‘Crap. What do I do now?’ This is a really morbid way of thinking about it, but I never thought I’d live past college. Not that I thought I would die, but I never imagined it -- I never imagined not being in college.

When I was younger I’d think, ‘I’m going to college and I’m going to do all these things.” But it was never anything past college. So ‘where am I now’ is like this weird limbo where I’m still in school but I don’t really know where I’m headed, which is okay, but I also feel is not okay (laughs).”

“What do you want to accomplish before you graduate?”

“In four months? I really want to try to reconnect with a lot of the people I’ve met here. I’ve always been friends with people older than me, or strived to make friends with people in a lot of places, not just my own age. Now it’s easier because we have Facebook, and you can always message people and say 'hey, how’s your life? What’ve you been up to?' Reconnecting with people is my biggest thing because I’m so involved with different groups so I consistently see the same people and work with the same people but I also want to make time for people who are in other student groups. I want to strive to see them or hang out with them and make memories with them, and be able to make enough memories and contacts so that two years from now, it I had a question or just wanted to catch up, it wouldn’t be weird. We’d have history together. That’s important to me. Some people make friends, but they aren’t lasting friends, and I really value every single person I’ve met and I really value every single experience. There are plenty of people I’ve just done homework with, but I feel like since we’ve hung out, we’ve connected in some way, so it wouldn’t be weird to randomly message them. Reestablishing or reconnecting with these people is what I want to do. I want to meet back with the people I met freshman year, catch up... now is the only time we’re living literally within a mile of each other. Everyone’s just like, 'oh it’s so convenient,' but we’re still lazy. We’re like ‘eh, they live in West, I don’t want to walk there.’ or ‘I have so much work to do, I don’t want to go out,’ but when is this time going to come again, since we’re all so busy?”

“What is your favorite part about being a leader in the BU miXx Cover K-Pop Dance Group?”

“Hmm. I think when myself and another club member/co-founder had our first show that was pretty much run by us, or just seeing a really big show or event unfold after our own efforts. The shows are really good because I was a choreo leader, so I taught people choreography from the K-Pop music videos. So teaching people and watching them do dances they never thought they would be able to do, and seeing their growth throughout the year made me really happy. Being able to see a choreo leader say, ‘Wow, this music video came out' and 'wow I taught this dance to these people who didn’t know the dance,’ and then seeing it performed on a stage at this event... I’m just so glad I get to see these people performing live. Unless you are put in it, the common person doesn’t just perform. Seeing that boost of confidence and personal growth that you see in other people, that’s what makes me feel really grateful I’m in the position that I’m in, and that’s what keeps me striving for more, whether it’s events people learn and benefit from, or a concert where people have the opportunity to showcase what they’ve done and see that gained confidence after performance - that’s really what drives me.”