With the start of Autumn Quarter, new students have arrived onto the University of Chicago campus ready to begin the next step of their intellectual journeys.
This year’s group comes from cities big and small, with causes they champion and unique reasons to make UChicago home. We spoke with five new undergraduates to learn more about them and their hopes for their UChicago experiences.
Rebeca Branco
Transfer student Rebeca Branco had a one-word answer when asked to sum up her thoughts on coming to UChicago—grateful.
“I really loved my previous institution, but when I wrote my transfer essay, I struggled to contain my excitement about UChicago to a couple hundred words,” said Branco. “I wanted to come here to foster my love of learning but to also have the kind of community where I can ask questions about different subjects and get responses from incredibly passionate and intelligent people.”
Branco’s journey to UChicago hasn’t been a straight line. Born and raised in Curitiba, Brazil, the economics major first came to the United States to study at Emory University before transferring to the College.
Branco has been branded as a trailblazer in her family. She was the first to travel to the U.S. for education and wanted a different career path than her parents, who are both doctors.
“Growing up, I always knew I'd pursue a slightly different path,” said Branco, who plans to study economics. “No one in my family had considered academia at a foreign institution. I went back and forth between studying economics or medicine, but once I made my decision, I knew UChicago was the right place for me.”
Earlier this year, she and her sister started “Humanas”, a project that repurposes clothes to be turned into handmade dolls by senior citizens.
“There are a lot of orphanages in Brazil, and the girls there grow up without mother or grandmother figures,” Branco said. “There is also a sizable number of elderly women that wish they could contribute more to their community but aren’t given the chance. We wanted to find a way that we could give them a purpose while helping young girls create that missing bond of sharing in a kind of love.”
Branco wants to take that experience and find a student organization to merge her love of economics and social impact. In the meantime, she’s looking forward to experiencing all that Chicago has to offer.
“Chicago keeps you close to everything,” said Branco. “With leading firms and endless opportunities all around. I am absolutely thrilled and incredibly grateful to be here.”
Carleigh Hughes
Carleigh Hughes was born in Nashville but calls Mount Juliet, Tenn., home. Growing up in a rural yet suburban setting, being able to live in a big city was just one of the reasons why she picked UChicago.
“It will be a nice change of scenery,” Hughes said. “But I also want to go into political science or economics as a career, and I know that UChicago is a very strong academic institution for those specific majors. However, I’ve always been a little bit indecisive about what I want to study, and the Core will still allow me to dive into other things.”
Hughes says she grew up in an area where most people might not have shared her same belief system, but that never discouraged her. In fact, UChicago’s commitment to free expression is something that she is looking forward to experiencing.
“I’ve always tried to keep an open mind and that has allowed me to be exposed to so many different ideas,” said Hughes. “I’ve learned to listen before I judge and really evaluate what people are saying, even if I don’t necessarily agree with it.”
All these factors have combined to give her a cause to champion and what she hopes is a career path forward after graduation.
“I hope to gain an education that I can use to help educate other people and expose them to new ideas,” Hughes said. “Whether that is through policy, politics, litigation or education, it will allow me to show others that there are beliefs out there other than the ones that they’ve been around their whole life.”
As for the next four years, Hughes is specifically looking forward to two things.
“What I’m most excited for is the food scene in Chicago and to have a chance to try all the different cuisines and restaurants,” said Hughes. “The most important thing to me going into my first year though is forming meaningful connections with those around me. Creating lifelong friendships and having people that I know I can support and people I know will support me will have such a big impact here.”
Julia Marden
Asking Julia Marden where home is isn’t as straightforward of a question as you would think. Born in San Francisco, she spent her formative years in Massachusetts, Malaysia and India. But as a member of the U.S. Navy, for the past four years she has called the USS Georgia submarine her home.
As she transitions to civilian life, Marden is excited to get settled in Hyde Park and set down roots.
“My dad went to UChicago for his undergraduate studies and when I was 12, we got a magazine in the mail,” Marden said. “I saw all the gargoyles and thought that seemed awesome. From then on, I had my mind set on the fact that this was the place I wanted to be.”
Marden plans to focus on climate studies with a goal of someday working with engineering and technologies for renewable energy.
“I could definitely see myself going into policy or advocacy around climate change and sustainability,” said Marden. “I’d like to help engineers come up with the safest way to transition us to different energy sources like nuclear fission since it can be executed incredibly safely but we just are not there yet.”
After over a decade of having a set daily routine, Marden will have to adapt to having a schedule with more free time than she’s used to. However, this is something that she is looking forward to, knowing that the city will provide more than enough activities to stay busy.
“I’ve never really lived in a city, so I think it’s going to be a lot of fun with how many things are always going on here,” Marden said. “I heard that kayaking on the river is really cool and attending a performance at the Joffrey [Ballet] is high on my list.”
Marden picked UChicago because of the education that she knows it will provide—something that is still her top priority as she plans her future above the water.
“We had something on the submarine that told you how to speak and make reports so ‘relearning’ how to write and create arguments will be good for me,” she said. “Ultimately, I just want to be educated. I want to have a better understanding of the world and how to contribute in a positive manner.”
Beren Tur
Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Beren Tur feels the best place to achieve his goals is right in Hyde Park.
“I wanted to go to college in the United States because of the opportunities that it gave me,” said Tur. “I wanted to get a liberal arts education while still being able to partake in research since I want to work my way towards a Ph.D. UChicago just stood out from rest and brought everything that I wanted together in one place.”
The Core curriculum played a role in his decision to come here, and Tur is excited to learn more about the subjects that will round out his education.
“With the Core I can learn about literature or history or philosophy,” Tur said. “I’ll like some classes more than others but it’s nice to know that there are so many different routes and options to explore.”
Tur is no stranger to research. He participated in two different specialized programs in Turkey that allowed him to serve as a teacher’s assistant for different professors and was allowed to assist in their labs. He also was an active member of his school’s Science Olympiad team, but knows that there will be more to the UChicago experience than just the intellectual pursuits.
“Coming to a new place, I want to make friends that have similar interests to mine. Scientific research is still a huge hobby of mine, but I think that a tabletop gaming group would be fun to join.”
Making those kinds of friends and connections plays into the idea that Tur has of building a network around him that will assist in his endeavors after he graduates in a few years.
“I want to have good connections,” said Tur. “Chicago is a hub for so many different intellectual people and I want to have that as I continue with my life in academia.”
William Yee
For New York City native William Yee, coming to UChicago was an easy choice. It helped that he was already familiar with the school thanks to a Summer Session program that allowed him to dive into one of his possible areas of focus.
“I attended the ‘Stone and Bones’ paleontology course during my junior year in high school that allowed us to study both on campus and at the Field Museum for two weeks before we spent the next two on site in Wyoming digging for fossils,” said Yee. “It allowed me to see how the school catered to one of my many interests and how a great education would be possible no matter what path I took here.”
While technically undecided, Yee can see himself working towards a degree in either geological sciences or economics and points to the Core as something that will make picking which one easier based on the freedom it allows a student to explore a variety of academic interests.
“Coming to UChicago, I already had interests in the two areas I’m thinking about majoring in,” Yee said. “But I also love botany and birds and a lot of random stuff out there. So the Core really interests me because I really want to learn about as many things as I can for as long as possible.”
His extracurricular interests are as broad as his academic ones. A fan of rock climbing, ultimate frisbee, birding and building terrariums, he is also passionate about Asian advocacy as well as food allergy awareness. Yee worked with the Food Allergy Research and Education organization during high school and hopes to continue to be a voice on the topic on campus.
“My younger brother has food allergies and I really wanted to help out in that area,” said Yee. “I want to have a safer environment for anyone that has to worry about what they eat at all times and that includes our dining halls.”
With so many interests and areas of focus, Yee tried to pinpoint one thing he wants from his College experience.
“I hope to gain more knowledge about myself as a person,” he said. “What do I truly like to do and what things do I truly need? I hope that I’ll have answers to those questions once I leave UChicago.”
—A version of this story is published on the University of Chicago College website.
