Meet our ANSO Elders for 2017. These students are Senior Advisors who serve as liaisons between students and faculty. They help organize events for the major, solicit student input for hiring and staffing decisions and informally advise majors and potential majors on matters like course selection and departmental life. Please feel free to contact any one of them if you have a question related to the student experience or the department. This year’s Senior Elders are Nicholas Dehn, Apshara Ravichandran and Mariana Garcia.
Nick Dehn
Hometown: Wilton, CT
Major(s): Sociology and English
What got you interested in ANSO: My first foray into Sociology was Prof. Shevchenko’s course on Memory and Identity. I was hooked, and haven’t looked back since. (In a truly subversive move, I have never actually taken SOC 101. Shhhh.)
Favorite Book: You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
Secret weakness: Pickle juice, bison jerky, and reading transcripts of obscure awards show speeches
Where you can be found on campus: Rehearsing with the Ephlats in Greylock or “working” in my second-floor carrel in Sawyer (his name is Steve Carrel).
Apshara Ravichandran
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Major(s): Anthropology and Chemistry
What got you interested in ANSO: I took Anthro 101 on a whim freshman year and was amazed and astonished by Clifford Geertz.
Favorite book: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Secret weakness: reading my horoscope
Where you can be found on campus: those tables in Sawyer where no one really gets any work done
Mariana Garcia
Hometown: East Hartford, CT
Major(s): Sociology and English
What got you interested in ANSO: I started off in high school thinking that I wanted to study psychology but it wasn’t until I took a class on it that I realized I wasn’t entirely interested in how people think individually but rather on how the world works in the form of social groups.
Favorite book: Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bontë
Secret weakness: Challah bread. Oh my goodness…
Where you can be found on campus: Either working at Schow’s service desk and checking out calculators or hidden in a nook somewhere at Sawyer reading.