{"id":8064,"date":"2016-10-09T14:19:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T19:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=8064"},"modified":"2016-10-09T14:19:48","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T19:19:48","slug":"christina-vazquez-doing-college-her-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/8064","title":{"rendered":"Christina Vazquez: Doing college her way"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FabFour\"<\/a>
Christina Vazquez gets photo bombed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jaden Lux–<\/strong>It\u2019s hard to find\u00a0a student at Morningside who came here\u00a0purely for academics. According to the college, 87 percent of students are involved in something\u00a0other than academics. This includes sports, band, choir, or other scholarship\u2013based activity.<\/p>\n

Extra-curricular activities\u00a0dominate this small liberal arts campus, but one Morningside student isn\u2019t fazed by the\u00a0disparity.<\/p>\n

Christina V\u00e1zquez is proud to attend college for the sole purpose of academics.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome think it\u2019s a little weird,\u201d V\u00e1zquez says nonchalantly. She sits attentively near the Spoonholder Caf\u00e9 admiring the pleasant atmosphere unfolding about her. Life seems to be working out perfectly well for a woman who wasn\u2019t engrossed in the activities that cause stress for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the time to devote to what I\u2019m really here for. I\u2019m here to learn and come away with everything that I possibly can. It\u2019s time to take care of myself,\u201d V\u00e1zquez says with certainty.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t to say she isn\u2019t still active in the college community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing theatre this year. I\u2019m in the children\u2019s play; I get a total of four lines which is good because it\u2019s not that much pressure. We\u2019re doing Elves and the Shoemaker <\/em>and my character is little girl named P.P.\u201d Christina says.<\/p>\n

This is the first time she has been an actress in theatre, something that she finds to truly be a learning experience. \u201cI keep worrying that I\u2019m going to break character and start laughing because some people are really funny!\u201d she says with haste.<\/p>\n

Joan Mansfield, Communications Department Secretary, witnessed firsthand just how excited Christinsa\u00a0was about her first performance. \u201cYou should hear her talk about it. She was all over; It was entertaining hearing her explain this,\u201d Mansfield expressed.<\/p>\n

On the days when Christina isn\u2019t furiously working on creating programs, stories, and promotions for the Communications Department on campus, she sits as the Vice President of the Art Club, which along with other clubs she\u2019s involved in, meets during the time that is coveted by athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do<\/em> you do during the hours from 3 pm to 6 pm?\u201d I asked with curiosity. The thought of using this time for something other than physical activity seems almost like a mythological concept to me. I\u2019m sure all other athletes can agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many things I can do. I can take a nap, grab a snack, do some homework,\u201d V\u00e1zquez lists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the craziest thing you have ever done during that time?\u201d I prodded hoping for some wild story that would blow me away. What could Christina V\u00e1zquez possibly have done to raise a few eyebrows?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can find me in the kitchen wearing an apron baking a cake. I\u2019m a grandma chasing my kids across the lawn,\u201d V\u00e1zquez says jokingly. Yes, my eyebrows definitely rose for a moment; meanwhile I realized that this is exactly what I would imagine her to be doing.<\/p>\n

She isn\u2019t kidding though. Christina enjoys knitting, baking, sewing, and (her words)\u00a0“grandma-ish interests.” Her friend, Morningside student Sara Alexander, sees the individuality in her beyond grandma qualities.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s like Jane Austen was thrust into 2016 and is trying to find her way through modern day life. She doesn’t care how much she stumbles because she doesn’t have time to deal with humiliation,\u201d Alexander explains. The fact this sort of description works with V\u00e1zquez shows just how unique she really is.<\/p>\n

Mansfield remembers an instance that showcases Christina\u2019s attempt to make a difference. \u201cShe came in last fall and introduced the international students [to me]. She probably brought in 7 or 8 of them and they all sat here and talked for 20 minutes. That was cool. I learned more about soccer in that 15 minutes than I have in my entire life,\u201d Mansfield recalled.<\/p>\n

Joan and the rest of the department know it\u2019s apparent that V\u00e1zquez keeps herself occupied as she lives her life day by day. The communications department has seen many projects from V\u00e1zquez both on the radio side and the school newspaper.<\/p>\n

Yet these are minor compared to what she has envisioned for MCTV. V\u00e1zquez has found a way to leave a legacy behind at Morningside by working on creating a regular newscast. While it is still in the works of getting up off the ground, there is a large amount of potential.<\/p>\n

She may not score the game winning point on Saturday, but every student that passes through the communications department or watches MCTV will most likely hear about the articulate girl that was determined to spearhead the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was a message to be taken from your time at Morningside what would it be?\u201d I ask. More students begin to fill the busy Learning Center as V\u00e1zquez considers her word choice. Bouncing her eyes from one student to the next, she found the message she was looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many ways to get involved in life, just being in sports or band, they aren\u2019t the only way. You can put your energy into what you like and if athletics and music isn\u2019t that, it\u2019s totally acceptable,\u201d Christina expresses.<\/p>\n

Christina V\u00e1zquez is truly living life the way she wants to live it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jaden Lux–It\u2019s hard to find\u00a0a student at Morningside who came here\u00a0purely for academics. According to the college, 87 percent of students are involved in something\u00a0other than academics. This includes sports, band, choir, or other scholarship\u2013based activity. Extra-curricular activities\u00a0dominate this small liberal arts campus, but one Morningside student isn\u2019t fazed by the\u00a0disparity. Christina V\u00e1zquez is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":8065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4287,56109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-morningside-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8066,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8064\/revisions\/8066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}