Jane Wang, former co-President of BridgeEmory and APIDAA

If I may offer one piece of advice to Emory’s underclassmen, let it be this: do whatever you want.

Within reason, of course. But moral and legal caveats aside, I have personally found my most fulfilling experiences at Emory not because I did as I was told but because I threw myself into the activities I loved.

I came to college as a pre-law student with all kinds of ideas about what “pre-law” should look like. I should study philosophy because it would provide a good foundation for law school and because philosophy majors statistically perform well on the LSAT. I should join student government, mock trial and the pre-law society because these would best demonstrate my commitment to becoming a lawyer. And I should really learn how to expand my friend groups into richer and whiter circles because I had heard that the legal field was filled with country-club types.

During my first year at Emory, I busied myself with transforming into this supposed ideal, and I truly learned more than I could have imagined. I learned that the abstract underpinnings of Socratic thought were often too far-removed from concrete reality to hold my interest for very long. I learned that I lacked the patience to deal with bureaucratic red tape and Robert’s Rules of Order in student government. I learned that I was more than capable of making nice with almost anyone; it just sometimes came at the cost of constantly feeling like I had to present a certain way in order to fit in.

Needless to say, my initial quest to become the picture-perfect pre-law student didn’t last long. After years of believing I needed to be “less Asian” for the sake of my career, I joined Emory’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Activists (APIDAA) because I was tired of viewing my identity as a weakness. I wanted to finally explore the history and stereotypes that had defined so much of my life and my community, so I made the time for it, four-year plan be damned. Now, in the days before I graduate, I thank God for that decision. The work that APIDAA has done to advocate for the Asian Student Center and the hiring of more Asian-Americanist faculty and staff has brought me more pride and joy than I could ever have foreseen.

I also started BridgeEmory with my friend Kimia for the same reason I joined APIDAA: because I wanted to. One of my high school classmates had been posting on Facebook about political speaker events at his university, and I wanted to see the same kinds of discussions at Emory, so I decided to make them happen. BridgeEmory got off to a rocky start in my sophomore year, but we have since then organized both large-scale panels and smaller discussion groups about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, police brutality, the COVID-19 pandemic and more. Creating BridgeEmory not only gave me useful knowledge and skills but also taught me that open dialogue can and should provide value for everyone, not just right-wing folks on the Internet.

My two greatest commitments in college were not part of the original plan. They were not tried and true methods of getting a job or getting into graduate school. No one told me I should become an activist or open expression advocate because it would look good on my resume. I chose my primary engagements at Emory by putting my own interests first and others’ expectations second, and I am all the better for it.

Of course, I cannot pretend that I eschewed resume-building and job-searching altogether; we live in a world where such considerations are necessary. But I would like to urge Emory students to get a bit creative on this four-year journey towards their greater goals. The conventional path will not always serve you best, especially if you pursue activities that don’t excite you. And if you think I’m being unrealistic here, just remember that “boring” doesn’t interview well. So, take the leap: find and cultivate your true interests. They will hopefully make you a more engaging and well-developed person.

Do whatever you want, and as long as you take the time to do it well, you will find that your college years have more than paid their dividends.

Jane Wang (22C) is a history major from Chandler, Arizona. She is the former co-president of both BridgeEmory and the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Activists (APIDAA). After graduation, Jane plans to work as a consultant in McKinsey’s Atlanta office for one year before attending law school.