I am elated to report that for this upcoming fall semester, my roommate, Mandy Velez, will be joining Derilyn Devlin as our HerCampus branch’s campus correspondent. After transferring from California University of Pennsylvania as a Biology major on the pre-med track, she soon realized science was not her true passion and decided to switch to studying communications and English. When asked about the change, she explains, “I wanted to do something I enjoyed and was good at. I’m a people person so writing and English fit all those things. I didn’t want to have a major just because I was scared of financial issues in the future.” Clearly, Mandy decided it was more important to go after her dream job, of becoming a writer for a popular magazine such as Cosmopolitan or Seventeen, than to work her butt off for a financially secure job in medicine that she wasn’t completely passionate about.
Mandy’s ambition and drive will certainly help her achieve her career goals, after using them to meet one of her idols, Nicole Mills. Mandy admires her because “she had to work hard to get where she is today and she never gave up. She’s also really fun to talk to.” It’s not surprising that Nicole is the Associate Publisher for her favorite magazine, Cosmo, and her admirable qualities are also well represented in Mandy’s personality as well.
As for HerCampus’s future, Mandy hopes to recruit enough staff members to have our own office at Pitt and to hold multiple successful events throughout the year. I have complete faith in Mandy helping to realize this goal and am excited to see all the amazing things she’s sure to accomplish in her life. Also, in case you needed more proof of her sweet personality, her response to my question of who her role model is was just two words: my mom.