If you haven’t heard her name yet, you have definitely seen her on campus or on Snapchat. And you might not know her by her actual name Ann Nguyen, but as Study-Buddy Ann.
Ann is a senior at Wake and a sociology and studio art double major.
Besides doing a lot of art, taking pictures wherever she goes— because photography is her hobby— she also runs Wake’s Snapchat. Now the question obviously is: how does someone get to do Wake’s Snapchat? First of all, Ann obviously loves social media and especially this version of social media. “I have a lot of fun with it. I was thinking it would be so fun to do Wake’s Snapchat but I didn’t even know Wake had it.” So, one of her friends put her in contact with the person who runs Wake’s social media account, and that’s where it all got started. First, it was just for finals weeks such as how to prepare for it, where to study etc., but it then it became more and more popular. “If I knew it had gotten that popular as it did, I don’t think I’d have called myself Study-Buddy Ann. That’s kind of an embarrassing thing to be called. It’s funny but it is also kind of nerdy, kind of lame,” she said laughing.
Ann was back snapping all week. You can add it on snapchat as wfuniversity. Nothing you want to miss out on.
“It’s actually kind of funny that I call myself Study Buddy Ann because I don’t study. I don’t have exams. Pretty much everything I do is writing papers.” But maybe that’s not even a problem because she is not the person who will tell you what you have to do for an exam— you should probably know that best for yourself anyway. Instead of that, she is your study friend in crime. “Finals suck. Doing all that work sucks. We don’t sleep; we smell bad. We don’t know what’s going on.” And especially during finals time, a lot of us don’t have a good support system because all our friends are stressed out as well. So Ann decided to be there for you. “You rock, and you got this.”
Besides social media, Ann also loves food. And if you ever need a recommendation on where to eat in Winston-Salem, Washington D.C., San Francisco or New York, reach out to her, and she will happily tell you about all the secret spots.
Stress? Nothing for Ann. “I don’t get stressed which is great. I sometimes force myself to go outside and do nothing.” So next time you see someone sitting in the grass even when it’s cold, there a pretty good chance it’s Ann. Maybe we should all start doing that every once in a while. It clearly seems to work for her.
Does she already know what will happen after graduation? No, not at all but that’s nothing she is worried about either. Things tend to work out for her. They just happen because you can’t plan on everything. She didn’t plan to be Study Buddy Ann but she is. Right now, she is also one of five scholars for Elle.com who develop multimedia projects and go on trips to listen to professionals in communication. And no, she didn’t plan on that either. The future? “I have no idea, and I am not afraid. People keep telling me I should be scared but I am not.”
One last thing she wants you to know about finals week: “Maybe stop studying.” Because sometimes we do too much of it and that can be counter-productive. “People on this campus tend to study too much or think that they have too much to do, and they get too freaked out. Maybe go and drink a beer if you are old enough or do something else to get away from it.” Sometimes a break is truly what you need. You will come back more relaxed and ready to go and kill that final.