This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Smith chapter.
Name: Perry Gans
Year: Junior
House: Gardiner
Major: Mathematics & Economics
Hometown: Falmouth, MA (Cape Cod)
Give us a fun fact: Typically people give fun facts about themselves, but I thought it would be more fun to give a random fun fact, so here goes: Imagine that there is a room full of 20 people. In that group of twenty people, we can be 100% sure that there are at least 2 people who have the exact same number of friends present (this includes having 0 friends as an option for the number of friends present). I think this is kind of cool and if you’re interested in thinking more about this concept, it’s based on the “Pigeon Hole Principle.”
What’s your favorite thing about Her Campus? I love the fact that Her Campus provides its member schools with individual forums that are totally personal to each campus chapter. It’s fun to see what topics certain schools focus on, and it’s awesome that in our own chapter we are able to cater to our very specific audience here at Smith!
What’s something most people don’t know about you? Most people don’t know that I took woodworking for three years in high school and love building furniture!
What is your life’s ambition?
To be honest, I don’t really know. Maybe my life’s ambition is to become a respected mathematician. But I suppose in the grand scheme of things, my life’s ambition is to do something that I enjoy. I never want to dread going to work and I think it’s absolutely possible to have a job that you love.
Favorite professor:
Oh my goodness this is a really tough one. I can’t just list one, so here are my top three: Professor Roger Kaufman, Professor Nessy Tania, and Professor Julianna Tymoczko.
What is one thing you think all Smithies should do before they graduate?
This is going to sound corny, but I think the one thing all Smithies should do before they graduate is come as close as they can to finding themselves. In my experience, Smith provides you with a journey that is almost impossible to find anywhere else. You are surrounded by some of the most intelligent women you will ever meet, professors here are amazing (that’s an understatement), and overall everyone is extremely accepting here. It’s not often that you get to spend time in a space where you are free to be whoever you want to be without fear of judgement, so take advantage of this luxury while at Smith and you will find that your confidence in who you truly are will begin to extend to places outside of the Smith College campus.
Muse?
Haha, well the first muse who came to my mind is someone whose name I probably shouldn’t mention here; however there are a lot of people who I would refer to as muses of mine. Some of them would be Drake, Nicki Minaj, my mom, my dad, my two sisters (Tommi and Georgia), Professor Roger Kaufman, and Professor Julianna Tymoczko. They all provide me with very distinct and important inspiration for different aspects of my life.
Care to share your most embarrassing moment?
I don’t know if I have one, to be honest. I’ve been embarrassed many a time, but nothing really stands out to me. I’m kind of a clown in general, so I’m always finding myself in embarrassing situations, but I usually just make a joke about it, everyone laughs, and we move on.