Student Government column

The third and final event of the Undergraduate Student Senate’s First Lectures Series is being held on April 26, 2018 from 8 to 9 p.m. in the Connan room. The First Lectures Series is run by the Campus Life Committee of the Student Senate to capture the life lessons, experiences, and perspectives of the graduating senior class as a parallel to Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.

So far this semester, we have heard from Justis Hibshman, Kevin Wainczak, Gaby Cach, and Shreya Desikan. This final event will feature Tara Stentz and Apeksha Atal, two seniors with truly exceptional and inspiring stories.

Tara Stentz is an electrical and computer engineering major who is planning on working for the Uber Advanced Technology Group on their self-driving cars after graduation. She will be talking about how she had always loved math since she was a little girl, but didn’t feel like a good fit for Carnegie Mellon’s Electrical and Chemical Engineering major, because she was also a theater girl and no one in her major shared her interests. She will be emphasizing the importance of embracing uniqueness and refusing to hide parts of herself, even when she feels like she doesn’t belong.

Apeksha Atal is a biology and english major who is planning on spending the summer traveling and working on business analytics and content development at her mom’s company and working on publishing the novella she is writing for her senior thesis. She will be talking about her experiences with the concept of permanence, through the lens of her process of choosing a tattoo. She will be exploring the role of certainty and the lack thereof in her emotional, social, occupational, and academic life, as well as how she has come to embrace growth and the fact that the past cannot be changed.

Come support these speakers and learn from their experiences by coming to the event on April 26! Any questions may be directed to Rohini Sinha (rsinha1@andrew.cmu.edu). If you would like to be notified when speaker nominations and events are open next semester, follow our Facebook page, Carnegie Mellon Student Senate.