Prospectives visit for MOSAIC weekend
Shilpi Roy Culture editor
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Vanderbilt kicked off its second annual MOSAIC weekend March 18-21. Formally known as ASRW (Asian Student Recruitment Weekend), MOSAIC (Medley of Students and Ideas Connecting) now includes students from all minority groups who have been accepted to the university. This year, out of the 480 who were invited, 185 attended.
The prospectives were all very excited to be here. "I'm from the North, and I came with all these conceptions of the South. But being here has really changed all that because this school is actually pretty diverse," said Flora Mendoza of New York.
Her new friend Julie Pineda from California said, "I was really scared to come down here and not know anyone, but everyone's been really friendly. I feel like I'm at home."
The weekend was organized by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Jamie Kim, Tiffany Higgins and James Onwuachi have put together an itinerary for the prospectives that included a campus tour/scavenger hunt, sessions for the individual colleges, a student organizations fair and panels on diversity on campus.
They have been planning the weekend since the end of MOSAIC weekend last year.
"As one prospective said, Vanderbilt's Web site really doesn't do justice to the cultural diversity of the campus. The weekend was put together to show prospectives that Vanderbilt is a good place for minorities," said Jamie Kim.
The purpose of MOSAIC is to give prospective minority students a unique introduction to a campus constantly striving for increased diversity and awareness.
Therefore, each prospective is staying with an undergraduate host student at Vanderbilt. Hosts and prospectives were matched through common academic interest, hometown vicinity or ethnic background.
"It's cool that they try to match the host and the prospect in some way, because there's always at least one thing to talk about, and you can usually build from there," said Avani Patel, a sophomore who hosted during the weekend.
In general, the minority undergraduate population of Vanderbilt looks forward to MOSAIC weekend each year. "We've gotten so much support from the campus organizations. It didn't matter if they were minority-affiliated or not, they were all happy to help," Jamie Kim said.
This is because many campus organizations put on shows and performances to attract the prospectives. LiveVU has become an annual event that occurs during MOSAIC weekend. It is a show held in Langford that is an amalgamation of performances from different campus organizations. "I thought LiveVU was the best part show of the weekend," said prospective Shivarni Shah from Arizona.
The show is specifically put on to show the prospectives, who are the majority of the audience, what type of activities there are on campus. "It was a great show because everyone's so excited to perform for the prospectives," said Nishy Milekkachalil, a sophomore who participated in this year's MESA belly-dancing performance at LiveVU.
MOSAIC weekend ultimately tries to help the prospective freshman pick Vanderbilt as their undergraduate school of choice.
"Because MOSAIC weekend now includes all minorities instead of just Asians, our statistics are a bit skewed, but we know that each year the percentage of students who attend this recruitment weekend and actually matriculate here has been increasing," Jamie said.
This year's MOSAIC weekend was a success, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Now all that remains to be seen is how many of the prospectives choose Vanderbilt as their new home.