At the age of three, freshman Claudia Rhett took her first dance class. However, it wasn’t until a few years later that she knew this was what she wanted to pursue as a career, she said.
Along with dance, Rhett ran cross-country and took part in other activities throughout her childhood. Her dance teacher pulled her mom aside one day and told her Rhett needed to choose between ballet and her other activities.
Rhett chose ballet.
When searching for the best college for her, IU was a perfect choice, Rhett said. The Jacobs School of Music ballet program has excellent faculty.
For Rhett, becoming prepared to dance after college is one of her biggest goals for her time at IU.
“I want to learn a lot and be able to get a job dancing professionally after graduation,” Rhett said.
After months of packing and preparing for the move, Rhett said she’s relieved to be on campus. However, her roommate switched schools last minute, so Rhett’s been living alone.
“I’ve enjoyed having my room to myself, but it’s been hard not to have someone around all the time,” Rhett said.
Rhett said she’s still in love with IU and through her college search, the campus made Rhett’s decision easy.
“I felt like I was home,” Rhett said.
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Playing baseball his whole life, freshman Ryan Fraser started to receive offers to play baseball for a few smaller schools. Fraser, however, wanted to play for a larger school.
Fraser is planning to try out to be a walk-on for IU’s baseball team.
With tryouts in September, Fraser said there’s a lot of work, including getting academic approval to play, receiving a physical and filling out numerous forms, to do beforehand.
“I played for a travel team the past couple of years, and we traveled around playing games across the country,” Fraser said. “I knew I wanted to continue doing that in college.”
Fraser’s goals for the next four years include playing baseball and getting into the Kelley School of Business his sophomore year.
“I really want to stay involved and focus on my education,” Fraser said.
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For freshman Jake Preddy, going to a school far away from his home doesn’t bother him.
Originally from Vermont, Preddy said coming to school in Indiana isn’t much different from going to a school a few hours away from his home.
“Once you’re five or six hours away from your home, you can’t go home every weekend anyway,” Preddy said. “It’s not really a big deal to go any farther away.”
Preddy is studying journalism with hopes to be a sports journalist one day.
“I really wanted a big-school atmosphere, and with IU’s journalism program, it seemed like the perfect choice,” Preddy said.
Although he’s only been here a few days, Preddy said his transition to college has been smooth.
“It’s hard to find my way around because it is such a big campus, but I know that’ll get better over time,” Preddy said.
Looking at the next four years, Preddy said he plans to focus on his education and career.
“I really want to use this time here to become the best journalist I can be,” Preddy said.
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For freshman Lei-Aysia Brownlee,nk the dream started in middle school.
Watching movies like “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “Ender’s Game,” Brownlee became fascinated by robots, and her goal now is to pioneer artificial intelligence.
She’s working toward this dream by studying both cognitive and computer science, the fields she said are best-suited for creating AI.
“It’s a mixture of the brain and how technology works, so hopefully robots can be more human-like,” Brownlee said.
Her dream company is IBM, but, more broadly, she just hopes to end up either in Seattle or Silicon Valley, she said.
As a black woman, Brownlee said she sometimes worries about going into a STEM field, which are traditionally dominated by white men, but she said this worry mostly just pushes her to be better.
“I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, they gave her that position because she’s a woman,’” Brownlee said.
