If you have been to any campus events this year, from Homecoming Week to the Treelighting Ceremony on College Walk, you can thank Yanyi Luo, a senior in Columbia College, for planning and running many of the events from behind the scenes.
Yanyi is one of those students that makes Columbia the eccentric place it is. She currently serves as the vice president of Campus Life in Columbia College Student Council this year, a very fitting role for a dynamic person such as Yanyi, who wants to bring students together in both large and small intimate events.
“I really want people to feel connected here at Columbia,” Yanyi says eagerly. From her animated style of speaking, you can detect right away the passion and dedication she puts into her position and that she takes it very seriously.
Yanyi has been a part of nearly every bubble at Columbia during her four years at the school. In her time here, she managed to write for Spectator, work at a startup, coordinate Live at Lerner, and juggle internships, among other things. She also plays the violin, and is also currently a deejay, bartender, and freelance web developer and designer. Two of her most important passions, music and poetry, also play an important role in her life. Yanyi does not push any of her interests to the side or put one above the other, but embraces them all.
“I just have a lot of interests. It’s actually kind of crazy thinking about how much I’ve been able to do since coming to Columbia,” Yanyi admits.
Despite her varied hobbies that keep her busy, if you saw Yanyi walking up the street on Broadway, you would mostly like only notice a very cool, calm, and collected demeanour. You would probably have no idea that she is such an essential part to life at Columbia. It would seem someone with so much responsibility would be frazzled, but Yanyi is the exact opposite – except at parties she admits. Her secret to not getting overwhelmed?
“I’m really only in one extracurricular at a time if I can help it,” she says. “It is a matter of not over committing yourself.” Instead of getting involved in many things superficially, Yanyi choses to dedicate her time and energy to a smaller number of activities. In this case, less is more.
The evidence of her hard work just this year as VP of Campus Life can be seen in the numerous campus events meant to bring students at Columbia, a place she calls at times “decentralized,” closer together and foster a sense of community.
“This place is basically a hub of potential,” Yanyi cites as her favorite part of Columbia. “The possibilities here are seemingly endless, as long as you put effort into getting to them, which I think is my favorite part of Columbia,” she continues. “My role as VP of Campus Life…is being able to bring out that potential and to make things happen and get people to cross paths.”
Surprisingly, Yanyi did not set out to immediately become an integral part of campus life upon coming to Columbia.
“I joined student council in high school and actually I hated it,” Yanyi chuckles. She gives credit to an old roommate, who encouraged her to get more involved on campus. “Student council here…if you put effort into it, you do have a lot of sway and say.” She laughs at her own cleverness.
In fact, Yanyi admits that she was admitted to Columbia as a well-rounded and involved high school student, and had no idea the person she would become during the past four years.
“It’s interesting to think about who I was then and who I am now, and there’s a lot of difference,” she reflects. When asked how she has changed at Columbia, Yanyi is honest. She credits her relaxed yet confident and content composure to a newfound consciousness found throughout her years at Columbia.
I feel I’ve reached a level of really intense self-awareness and confidence in who I am,” she says.
Yanyi is majoring in information science and will receive her degree in the spring. Though she may take a lot of computer science and quanitative classes for her major, Yanyi’s favorite class while at Columbia may come as a bit of a surprise.
“Literature humanities with Kathleen Smith,” she says automatically. “Lit Hum was definitely that defining class for me.” Yanyi is also studying comparative media theory along with information science, so she also takes many English and comparative literature classes, another testament to the extensive lists of interests she has.
Even though Yanyi is graduating this year, she will still be living in the Big Apple, a place she loves as both a concept and for all the opportunities the city has to offer. She already has a job lined up at AppNexus as a software engineer after graduation. “It’s going to be a really great experience, and I’m excited,” Yanyi says of her new employment. She also hopes to continue to pursue her other passions and hobbies. Eventually she wants to introduce a new music scene to New York and create a community for writing and publishing poetry.
Yanyi’s dynamic list of activities, however, is no comparison to her dynamic personality. She is more than just an impressive resume, but an impressive person. Yanyi is smart lively, funny, and honest, and you should definitely get to know her before she graduates.