Name: Kenny Smith
Age: 21
Year: Senior
Majors: Math, Economics and Chinese
Hometown: Venice, FL
Photo By: Hana Bilicki
Her Campus (HC): You have quite a lot on your plate as far as majors go. What made you choose to study in each of these three areas?
Kenny Smith (KS): I came in as an exploratory major and I really had no clue what I wanted to do. I chose math because I have always been pretty good at it and I figured that it was a good place to start. Then I chose economics because I had an interest in the economy as a whole and how different countries interact in terms of monetary and fiscal policies. As for Chinese, I studied Chinese in high school and I was going to minor in it, but I figured it was only a couple extra classes so I might as well just throw the major on because I had the time.
HC: So you have had an internship that is involved with finance, can you tell us more about that?
KS: For the past two summers I did an internship with a credit rating agency called Moody’s in New York.
HC: What kind of work did you do for them?
KS: I was working in the corporate credit rating agency section. What they do is they give companies ratings on how likely they are to pay their debt back, and based off that rating, it influences what interest rates they get on their bonds. I was working, specifically, with oil and gas companies. It was interesting because right now the oil prices are dropping so dramatically. My first summer there, oil barrel prices were about 110 dollars a barrel and now it’s about 30 dollars. So the first summer all of these companies were doing great and getting upgrades on their ratings and now they are all getting downgraded. It was kind of cool to see that happen.
HC: What was your favorite part of living and working in New York?
KS: Two things: the food, which is incredible and just exploring the city with the people met up there. It was mostly college students from other schools. I had a few friends from FSU up there this past summer, but the first summer was just students from other schools.
HC: What was the best restaurant you went to?
KS: I’ll give you three. Prosperity Dumpling, which was a super cheap Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, but they are closed now. Another was Wolf Nights, which was a wrap place that had really strange combinations, it was kind of like a Monk’s/Wells Brothers but for wraps. The third place would be Blue Smoke. It is a barbeque place which is pretty pricy but it was the best food in the city.
HC: What was your favorite place that you explored in the city?
KS: Fort Tryon Park. It is up in the northern tip of Manhattan. I went up there with my sister this past summer and it is basically this museum that is run by the MET and it has botanical gardens. It is on this cliff that is overlooking the Hudson.
Courtesy: Kenny Smith
HC: What other organizations are you involved with?
KS: I am president of the bowling team, I am an RA and I am also a Dance Marathon delegate for my fraternity, Delta Chi.
HC: How did you get into bowling?
KS: Weird story. I was in third grade and on the last day of school our art teacher asked us to draw what we were going to do for the summer. I am terrible at art, still am to this day. I could only kind of draw a circle back then, so I was drawing some circles on the paper and thought, “well that’s a bowling ball, so I’m going to draw myself bowling.” I went home and said, “Mom, I told the teacher that I am going to bowl this summer, I can’t lie to her,” and then my mom signed me up for bowling league and I have bowled ever since.
HC: What has been your favorite memory or accomplishment in the sport?
KS: I’ll give you three. One was in high school and at that time I made Kegel’s elite team. After my freshman year in college I bowled in the Junior Gold tournament for youth nationals, which is a tournament where the top few people in the country earn spots on Team USA, I was in 30th or 40th place at one point. I ended up finishing around 100th place, but I made the advancer’s round after the first cut, which was pretty cool. As a team, we won a tournament in match-play where the match-play section is head-to-head for a couple games against other schools.
Courtesy: Kenny Smith
HC: What is your favorite part of being a Resident Assistant?
KS: Free toilet paper!
HC: That is hilarious! What made you actually want to become an RA in the first place?
KS: I want to be able to make an impact on freshmen and serve as a mentor to them. I know that when a lot of my friends came here they wanted to get involved on campus but they didn’t know how or what way to get involved. I think RAs are great resources to help them find what they want to do. Lucky for me I have been able to be an RA for past three years.
HC: Do you have any advice for undergrads? What do you usually tell your residents?
KS: “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” If you focus too much on your school work or your job or even your extracurriculars, you burn out so quickly. I always make sure I have at least one night a week were I am not doing anything, or am just watching Netflix or hanging out with my friends, so I can relax. Another thing that helps me is that, because I am on the bowling team, I am typically gone half the weekends of the year. About two weekends a month I have tournaments, so just getting away from Tallahassee is helpful. So whether that is being involved in something or just taking a trip, going somewhere else can help a lot.