Meet this week’s Her Campus Celebrity, David Taylor. David is the president of this Senior Gift Committee. If you would like to learn more about Senior Gift and their upcoming events please read our exclusive interview with David Taylor below!
Basic
Name: David Taylor
Hometown: Rochester, New Hampshire
Grade: Senior
Major: Social Work
Activities/Clubs: Senior Class Gift
Senior Gift
When did you get involved with the Senior Gift Committee? I started with Senior Gift Committee as a sophomore. I went to a Senior Gift event and saw someone in an astronaut costume. I wanted to wear the costume, so I asked someone and they let me. The rest is kind of history. For the last 2 years, I was the UNH Senior Gift Astronaut. This year we got rid of the Astronaut as a mascot because we want to go in a different direction. I was appointed as Senior Class Gift President this year
What is your role as president? As president, I am essentially the “face” of the Senior Gift. I have a hand in all aspects of the committee, but my role primarily has me helping out the Events Committee with planning, coordinating and actually putting on Senior Gift Events that are interesting to seniors and also make sense with the resources we have at our disposal as a committee. I’m the one who sort of emcees the events and checks in with everyone and hypes the event as it’s happening. I have a hand in the advertisement and promotion of Senior Gift as well, although our Communications Committee does most of the work for that, advertising on social media and around campus getting seniors excited about our upcoming events as well as Senior Gift in general.
What is the senior gift this year? This year, we are starting up a Class of 2015 Scholarship. This will be a renewable scholarship that we hope to continue in the name of our senior class for years to come. The scholarship will go to an upcoming senior to help them through their final year. Our hope is that our scholarship will allow a senior to finish their last year when they may not otherwise have been able to, or even just to give to a senior so their student loans aren’t quite as crippling when they get out.
What events have Senior Gift committee hosted this year? Our Senior Gift Kickoff Event was called Knot Graduating. The event was held when there were exactly 50 days until graduation, so we went with kind of an “in denial” theme as opposed to a celebratory one. It was held at The Knot Irish Pub. We had free food and discounted drinks as well as raffles for all who came.
Were they successful? On the whole the committee and I were very happy with the turnout for our event. The knot was pretty much full for the duration of the event, so people were definitely having a good time. We had 94 seniors contribute to the Senior Gift. That is almost 1/5 of the way to our goal of getting 500 seniors to donate, so we had a very strong start and we look to build off of that.
Do you have events coming up? You’ll see us at things like Cap and Gown Pickup and the Senior Toast, but our next major event will be Senior Slice Night. We will have pizza from numerous establishments not only in Durham, but also pizzas from places in Dover, Newmarket, and Portsmouth. The senior class will get to sample all these pizzas and vote on their favorite. The winner will be named “The Official Pizza of the Class of 2015”. We are shooting for April 23rd, but we’ll keep you posted on the whens and wheres of it.
UNH Questions
Where if your favorite place to study (Library, Paul College, Union Court)? I’m always the most productive when I go to the Library to study or do homework. It’s got a great vibe.
Favorite Dinning Hall (Philly, Hoco, Stillings)? I’m partial to Hoco because it’s always open and right in the middle of campus. As long as you don’t go between 12:30 and 2PM it’s pretty awesome.
Favorite Place to get coffee (BNG, aroma joes, the hut, the works, dunks)? I’m going to get a lot of flak for this, but I don’t drink coffee, I like some of Aroma Joes’ Rushes and I occasionally get a donut from Dunks though.
What is your best memory at UNH so far? I’ve had so many awesome memories and experiences that it’s really hard to pick just one. Academically I’m going to say my Social Work classes as a whole because all of us are such a tight knit group and have really grown together these last 4 years. Socially, I believe the Knot Graduating event is something that I will never forget and was an awesome experience.
Random Questions
Do you have any hidden talents? I was a professional wrestler (like WWE but not in WWE) for two years. So I’m experienced at entertaining hundreds of people haha
What was your favorite childhood bedtime story? I really liked the Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, that was my jam
If you could be cast in any reality show, which one would you pick? I’d be on The Bachelor just because I’d like to see my own reaction to that many girls fighting over me.
What song best describes you? Car Radio by Twenty One Pilots
If you could hangout with any celebrity who would you pick, and why? I would hang with Taylor Swift because once she met me, she’d fall in love with me and we’d get married. Then her name would be Taylor Taylor and I would call her T squared and we’d live happily ever after. The End.
To dontate: unh.edu/seniorgift