Name: Lyle Nash Stokes
Hometown: Nashville, TN
Major: Electrical/Computer Engineering
Relationship status: Single
Favorite book: No Country for Old Men
Favorite place to eat in Tuscaloosa: “Surin’s for midnight sushi. My current record is 32 pieces in one sitting.”
What is your favorite part about your major? “I find the intersection between physical and virtual worlds interesting. The thought of writing lines of code that can move massive machines and solve the world’s problems is neat.”
If you could teach a class on a topic of your choice, what would it be? “Probably a class on how to talk to anyone. I definitely need some help understanding social rules as much as the next person, if not more so. However, I feel like so much ignorance and hate about other people and groups could be erased if we stopped projecting stereotypes onto the people we meet and instead listened to them as individuals.”
If you could have dinner with any celebrity, living or dead, who would it be and why? “As cliche as it is, Elon Musk. His companies aren’t really my interest, though. I would rather talk about the role he feels he plays in the world and the importance of being a good father while chasing your passions. That man works crazy hours and has six kids. What is his secret?”
What is your favorite part about being in Phi Beta Sigma? “What it teaches me about myself and my world. I am from the South, was raised in a white family, went to a white high school, and chose a majority white college (or PWI, a term I learned thanks to my fraternity). I was doing very little to step out of my comfort-zone, so I joined a historically black fraternity after doing some research. I liked what Phi Beta Sigma stood for and the way they helped their community rather than just themselves. What initially felt like a social experiment soon became very real. My line brothers truly feel like my brothers, and for someone without many male friends that is a very important thing to me.”
What is the best concert you have ever gone to? “Wilco. Very dad-rockish. Very talented.”
Describe yourself in three words. Diet Jim Halpert
What inspires you? “The sunrise, genuine laughter, and beauty. Completely genuine answers that would be very profitable if put on an Etsy pillow in a cute font.”
What’s the best advice you have ever gotten? “You don’t become a good artist by being better than everyone else at art or music, you get there by being better at marketing. You don’t become a chief engineer by being better than everyone at math, you get there by being better at communication and dealing with people.” -Casually Explained Guy
Where do you see yourself in five years? “Hopefully doing what is best for myself and the people around me.”