Name: Maddie Brandenburger (’11)
From: Greenwich, Connecticut
Major: Economics with International Development Policy and Anthropology minors
Her Campus (HC): What are you involved in on campus?
Maddie Brandenburger (MB): I interned with Professor Niepold with the Nyanya Project, which is a nonprofit that works with grandparents based out of Winston. I’m a research assistant for the Center for Enterprise Research and Education. I started a microfinance club on campus, and I’m a member of a student organization called Microfinance Institution (MFI) which runs a website that connects students with microfinance professions – we have over 1,500 members. I mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I’m also a member of Chi Omega.
HC: What extracurricular are you proudest of?
MB: I founded a new venture called the Snap Project, which just got nonprofit status. I made three trips to east Africa to conduct research on sustainment development. I started taking pictures on the side. After selling several at an auction for my sorority (the parents went crazy over them), I thought I could turn it into a business. I’ve really come full circle from freshman year to senior year. My college essay was called “Snap” and was all about the power of the camera and being able to stop time and capture a beautiful essence.
HC: With exams in full force, it’s inevitable that you fill us in on how you survive finals.
MB: The Reading Room is my spot – or the 24-hour room. And I always have to have a drink with me, usually a chai tea.
HC: How do you detox after exams . . . or how do you celebrate?
MB: My friends and I always eat out at 6th and Vine. There’s definitely lots of wine involved.
HC: What are your thoughts on graduation?
MB: It’s been a roller coaster of emotion already. I’m obviously excited to move to India but terribly sad to leave all of my friends. I can’t imagine not having all the opportunities Wake has to offer when I leave. And yet it still kind of feels like I’ll be coming back. I’m not sure if it will hit me entirely until summer is over and I’m not coming back to school.
HC: What will you miss most about Wake?
MB: My friends – and being able to bum around all day long with them in the middle of the week.
HC: Do you have any advice to pass along to underclassmen?
MB: Take advantage of every opportunity, and don’t take any of your time in school for granted. Try to keep perspective. Getting a bad grade in class isn’t going to kill you.
HC: What are your plans for after graduation?
MB: I’m moving to India in July. I got this social enterprise fellowship, so I’m moving to Hyderabad, a city in southern India. I’ll be working for a new program called Affordable Private Schools where a wealthy person starts a college like a business; so the other fellows and I will be working in these schools to make the program more sustainable – basically trying to solve social issues in the education system. It’ll be different working on the business side of the education system.
HC: Okay, let’s talk pop culture. In light of the Royal Wedding, do you prefer William or Harry?
MB: William, for sure.
HC: What are your top five favorite frat songs?
MB: “Shout,” “Forty Day Dream,” “Teach Me How to Dougie,” “Walking on Broadway,” and “Wagon Wheel.”
HC: What is your most memorable life experience?
MB: This summer I lived in a village in Tanzania for two weeks. I was the first white person to ever go there, and was literally all by myself. I slept with the women and children on a sheepskin rug in their hut and taught English in another mud hut. While I was there, they performed a sheep sacrifice ceremony in my honor, and I had to drink all the blood from the head of the sheep after they butchered it in front of me.
HC: Were you not worried about getting diseases from the blood?
MB: Well, they boiled the blood first. If I had not done it, it would have been like slapping one of the elders in the face.
*Photography by Karleigh Ash