#violetspotlight

Violet Spotlight: Nana Apraku

Violet Spotlight: Silvana Bravo

At NYU, pretty much everyone you meet is excited to be here,” says Silvana Bravo, a sophomore in the Rory Meyers College of Nursing. “That’s encouraging, and it also fosters a little bit of competition, which I think helps you grow.”

For Silvana, who took three science courses as a high school senior in Atlanta, nursing was the perfect field to blend her academic interests with her passion for community service. She hopes to practice in a hospital before going back to school for a graduate degree in pediatrics—and then on to a career in public policy for health care, perhaps. For now, she’s throwing herself into a favorite course, Microbiology for Nursing, which she loves because of the way professor Robert Boylan uses examples from history to show how researchers used the scientific method to make advances in public health.

On weekends in the city, Silvana likes hitting the museums (the Met is a favorite for people watching) or stopping for ramen or bubble tea on St. Marks Pl. For a special treat, there’s Lanewyorkina on Sullivan St., which the Mexico City-born connoisseur says serves the best Mexican-style ice cream she’s ever tasted in the U.S.

Violet Spotlight: Sophia Wu

It was after a semester of organic chemistry—a famously taxing course—that psychology major Sophia Wu began to think about opening up a frank conversation about mental health on campus. “I saw my classmates break down before or after exams,” she reflects. “People weren’t handling things correctly. It was fake it till you make it.”

Then a sophomore, Sophia teamed up with two classmates to co-found Project InterACT, a Facebook page featuring interviews with students about mental wellbeing. “It’s been really inspiring and mutually therapeutic to hear people open up to a stranger,” she says of the conversations. “Every single person has so much to say.” Now a senior preparing for medical school, Sophia hopes to become a child psychologist or pediatrician—a career goal sparked by courses in her Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies minor. “I’ve been so inspired by my professors in CAMS,” she says, “many of whom are practicing doctors at Langone’s Child Study Center. I really appreciate their clinical experience.”

A native of Delran, New Jersey, Sophia has taken to city life, making a ritual of weekend brunch with friends (Westville is a go-to spot) and squeezing in a Broadway show whenever she can. “When I go back to the suburbs, I’m always craving more,” she says. As for maintaining her own mental and physical health, there’s singing—either private lessons or membership in the NYU Women’s Choir—and a regular running routine.

Violet Spotlight: Adrian Chochorek 

The other day Adrian Chochorek had an experience that made him remember why he chose to go to school in New York City: Standing in line at Starbucks, he spotted a woman reading book four of "In Search of Lost Time," the very same volume he was then tackling for his freshman seminar. He pulled out his own matching copy and the two struck up a conversation. “It was awesome to meet this random person who wanted to talk about Proust,” Adrian marvels. “You wouldn't really get that back in my hometown.” With 300-400 pages to burn through per week for that course—on top of all his other classes and a job working in Bobst’s Avery Fisher Center—the freshman, who plans to major in politics and history, has kept busy his first semester. But he doesn’t mind being challenged: “I love that even in my freshman year, I get to take a politics course with someone who’s associated with The Washington Post,” says Adrian, who’s also become active with the politics club. “It’s a big change from high school teachers.” On weekends, between brisk fall walks to explore the sights and sounds of the neighborhood, Adrian unwinds with the occasional Google Hangout to check in with old friends from back home. Well on his way to becoming a true New Yorker, the Copiague, Long Island, native already has already identified his go-to 99-cent pizza spot and perfected the art of people-watching, embracing the way the Washington Square campus blends into the city itself. “I love hearing languages that I haven’t heard before,” he says. “Sometimes I just sit in the park and read, or listen to a podcast, and I see people walking by and just try to imagine what their lives are like.”

Violet Spotlight: Esmeralda Amador

"It's crazy how one class can really change a person," says Esmeralda Amador (Dentistry, '20). For her, that course was Sociology of the Family, which she took through NYU's Precollege program as a high school junior at the Bronx's St. Raymond Academy for Girls.

"I still remember the moment," Esmeralda says. "I was reading a book about an inner city immigrant family's interaction with a physician, and I thought, 'Someone wrote a book about me!'” Born in the Dominican Republic, she had moved with her family to Manhattan’s Morningside Heights as a sophomore. “The story was so relevant to the dynamic of my family visiting anyone of power—a lawyer, a doctor, a dentist—that is was almost uncanny,” she remembers.

Almost instantly, Esmeralda saw herself, her urban environment, and her future differently. She had a new, all-encompassing goal: college at NYU.

As an undergrad here, Esmeralda majored in sociology and minored in chemistry, focusing on disparities in health care. After graduating in 2015, she carried those interests with her to NYU’s College of Dentistry, where she’s in her first semester. To relieve some of the pressures of the demanding four-year program, she plays squash at the gym and soccer with members of NYU’s recent alumni network. When out-of-town friends come to visit, she takes them to Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood, where she says she likes the perspective of “seeing the two bridges, and what Manhattan looks like from the outside.”

She dreams of someday practicing dentistry in a warmer climate—California, maybe—but at this point is trying to keep an open mind. “I’m open to going pretty much anywhere,” Esmeralda says. “Doesn’t everyone always seem to find their way back to New York, though?”

Violet Spotlight: Rodney Lin (Steinhardt '19) 

Rodney Lin (Steinhardt '19) didn't always picture himself as a New Yorker: Born to Taiwanese parents in the U.S., he'd grown up in China and figured he'd spend his college years on some bucolic campus in the Midwest. But when his older sister moved to the Big Apple for art school—and a high school teacher gently extolled the advantages of being the proverbial small fish in a big pond—city life started to sound more appealing.

Now the applied psychology major is sure he made the right choice: He likes the constant bustle and anonymity of the city—"you don't really stand out as a college student," he says—and loves exploring new restaurants with the help of a Yelp-savvy friend. (Harbs Japanese cafe in Chelsea is a choice find for afternoon tea.)

After a period of adjustment to university (and city) life, it didn't take Lin long to get involved as a Steinhardt orientation leader and as a member of APUG and Inside Scoop, two clubs for undergraduate applied psychology students. He also joined INSIGHTS, a research team studying how educators can best reach children with different temperaments, and the Peer Health Exchange, which trains university students to talk at local high schools about health education. Inspired by a course in mental health counseling, he hopes to become a therapist one day.