Antonia Boorman: Growing As We Go

Enes (M26) is a wanna-be thinker who cannot decide between CS, acting, philosophy or music. Trying to pass time by being a contrarian and arguing with passion. Despite having a broken spine and experiencing the back pain of an 80-year-old, he is still as adventurous as ever.

17 Feb 202335min

From the tender age of 10, Liberty was empowered to make big life decisions. As a kid, (and then at Minerva), she moved countries and schools frequently. Now as a graduate, she's digesting the impact of impermanence, and the paradox of choice, as well as nervously finding her feet in a new career.

13 Feb 202335min

L (M22) spent her childhood hoping for a visit from a Camp Half-Blood satyr but eventually grew tired of waiting. When not working or writing, she climbs mountains, tries new things, and (inevitably) gets lost. Her time at Minerva taught her that failure is a side effect of living.

6 Feb 202328min

Nikesh (M20) is a software engineer at an SF-based fintech company. He grew up in three different cities in Nepal before coming to Minerva. He recently started living a nomadic life, hopping between cities around the U.S. He enjoys watching/playing football, programming, solving puzzles, riding motorbikes, cooking and hiking.

31 Jan 202333min

Jon Wilkins is a theoretical evolutionary biologist and poet. After years of being buffeted around the intellectual ocean, he has washed up on the welcoming shores of Minerva, where he spends his time assembling metaphorical radios out of even metaphoricaler coconuts.

27 Jan 202324min

After the first semester of his second year in Seoul, Pelle (M25!) decided to take a gap year. The former M24 is currently volunteering for the climate justice movement - back home in the Netherlands. Pelle loves to share his enthusiasm about trees and mushrooms with high school students whom he teaches about biology and sustainability.

24 Jan 202328min

Svitlana (M22) grew up in Ukraine and embraced unknowns by participating in the US exchange program when she was 15. Following that, one of her greatest learning experiences was hitchhiking 10,000 km throughout Europe and having open conversations with drivers and couchsurfers. This taught her empathy and active listening, which Svitlana now actively uses while pursuing her passion of becoming a great Product Manager.

22 Jan 202330min

Professor Woods-Puckett talks about her journey of growing up in a household that equally valued science and art and how that drove her to be an Arts and Humanities professor. Professor Woods-Puckett also reflects on the history that has led us to create a divide between what we consider traditional Art and Science. She makes her strong case for rethinking STEM into STEAM (and we are not talking about the gaming store) because art is a fundamental way in which we express ourselves. Lastly, if you are a CS student, there's an entire session on how you can leverage Multimodal Communications to be a professional superhero.

17 Jan 202325min