Uptown New Orleans Was Far Enough

Guest blogger: Adam Griego

Since I was born and raised in a suburb of New Orleans to a family with no ties to Tulane, Tulane was never really on my radar for where I wanted to go to college. I was raised like all of my friends where you rather donned yourself in purple and gold or believed that this was your time to get out of the Southeast or at least Louisiana.  When it came time to pick which colleges that I wanted to apply to and ultimately attend, I had four categories that I assessed when breaking down each individual school.        

I wanted to:
 . Get as far away from home as possible
 . Have a big sports school atmosphere
 . Be one of a thousand students in big intro level classes
 . Attend an academically challenging institution

 Well, one out of four ain’t bad, but ignoring numbers one through three led me to learn more than I ever thought I could about my city and other areas of the world.

As a New Orleanian, I learned more about my hometown in my freshman year than I ever had in my first 18 years. I was able to do this because I got the opportunity to experience my home for the first time, again, with people who were in complete amazement about every single aspect of the city that I already loved. Also, I got to learn more about how what I saw as “normal” growing up by our city’s standards is truly unique to this one area of the world. I could have gone to college in Georgia, South Carolina, or New York, but I never would have gotten the diverse cultural experience like I did in my own hometown. My roommate freshmen and sophomore year was from Kansas, and our neighbors during our two years were from California, New York, Boston, Chicago, Arkansas, and many more, and during my two years as an Orientation Team Leader, I met people from almost every state in a matter of 60 days. By meeting all of these people, I have made connections all around the US and even in other countries. These connections have led me on trips to Boston, Washington D.C., Knoxville, Chicago, and a few others. Though my thought was to get as far away from home for college so that I could learn about another area, I learned that Uptown New Orleans was far enough to open my eyes up to a whole new world and to the lives of others from all around the world.  Another big perk of staying close to home for college is that my parents can still act like I go to school hours away, but when I really need some family time, they are right around the corner to see me for special occasions and feed me a dinner or two from time to time.  Last but not least, I learned the very important lesson that seersucker fabric is only appropriate to wear for Spring events or Homecoming.

In regards to a big sports school atmosphere, I soon learned that a sports program will not make or break my college experience. Sports are a huge part of my life, and if sports are as important to you as they are to me, you can attend every game here for free and enjoy the brand new Yulman Stadium. Also, you have a city that has two big league sports teams, Saints and Pelicans, a minor league baseball team, Zephyrs, and an Arena Football team, Voodoo. Since 2011, we have had the Super Bowl, Men’s Final Four, Arena Bowl, and Women’s Final Four, and the NBA All-star Game is coming next year. The opportunities for getting involved in the sports industry are endless, and I have taken advantage of it by volunteering for multiple events and having an internship with the Triple AAA New Orleans Zephyrs for this entire summer.

As far as being one of a thousand students, that would have been the worst situation for me. I have gotten to know so many incredible professors that have been able to talk to me one on one on both and academic and social level. The professors that I have met during my time here have not tried to fail me to prove that they know more than I do. They will do anything they can to make sure that I understand the material so that I walk away with new information to use in the future.

Lastly, the academic challenges are exactly what I was looking for in my college experience. I am challenged every week with foreign material but have the essential tools and information to complete my work. Our finance program ranks 3rd in the nation and top 30 internationally. The people that I am meeting and classes that I am taking are setting me up to succeed in my life after Tulane.

To this day, going against my original train of thought and attending Tulane was one of the luckiest decisions that I have made because of the time I have spent getting to explore my hometown and the people that I have met during this incredible experience.