At Vanderbilt, collaboration is more than a word鈥攊t鈥檚 an inspired action. Collaboration includes opening up to new ideas and perspectives, challenging each other and innovating while working toward a shared purpose.
Meet some members of the Class of 2024 whose thoughtful collaborations within Vanderbilt and beyond are helping heal, advocate and inspire.
Tatum Earp is a musical storyteller, and her memories are her muse.
The music composition major credits her time at Vanderbilt and the with cultivating her craft and honing her ability to shape raw emotions into sophisticated multi-instrument narratives.
鈥淎rt, especially music, definitely has the power to carry stories,鈥� the north Texas native said. 鈥淚 think opening up to that level of vulnerability and saying, 鈥業 am going to write about a story鈥攁 real life experience,鈥� has really been my biggest transformation.鈥�
COLLABORATION AND COMMUNITY
Earp said collaboration and community are keys to her personal and academic success. She first found community as a percussionist in her Texas high school marching band. That experience helped her step out at Vanderbilt鈥攂uilding an inspiring community among her classmates and connecting with valuable mentors, specifically music composition professors and .
鈥淢y professors really care about all of their students鈥攁nd not just about the material that they teach, but about the well-being of their students and about creating spaces for them to become articulate people, critical thinkers, and to really challenge them and ask them to grow,鈥� she said.
Earp has a strong Christian faith and has been focusing part of her studies on sacred music. She said Rose has challenged her in ways that have greatly improved her music.
鈥淎s well as being a passionate advocate of immersion in music of every kind, Professor Rose is Jewish, and we鈥檝e been able to interact in this interfaith space,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t has actually made me better as a person and a musician. I hope that my life and my career in the future can be a larger version of that, where I can interact with people鈥擟hristian or not, religious or not, and we can come together to create more goodness in people鈥檚 lives.鈥�
Read more of Tatum鈥檚 story here.>>
When Matthew Nettles joined the U.S. Air Force out of high school, he knew he had to straighten up and find focus in his life. He definitely found it鈥攁long with empathy and passion to serve others in mind, body and soul. Nettles is graduating with and degrees from Vanderbilt.
鈥淚 want to practice medicine and take care of people. I am deeply concerned, both intellectually and practically, with helping people who are suffering 鈥� I thought studying medicine and theology was the best way for me to do that,鈥� said Nettles, a .
Nettles is focusing his next chapter on mental health: He matched with for a residency in .
鈥淢att embodies a commitment to service and fostering cultural change through health care with wisdom and the maturity of his soul. He will make a difference in the repair of this world,鈥� said Nettles鈥� mentor , Anne Geddes Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and director of the at VUMC.
COLLABORATION THROUGH DEEP CARING
Nettles鈥� father is a pastor who laid a foundation of religious education for him. Nettles said that his degree from Vanderbilt Divinity School not only opened him intellectually but has equipped him to help patients in a deeper way.
鈥淵ou see it on TV鈥攖hose emotional moments when the doctor says, 鈥楾here’s nothing else we can do.鈥� And those limitations are real. But the truth is, there’s always something we can do. We can always sit with someone and let them know that we鈥檙e going to be with them and help them through their suffering. They’re not alone,鈥� said Nettles.
鈥淭here’s no other place I’d rather live in than right here, right now. With all of the problems as challenging as they are, I know progress is possible. And it doesn’t happen by magic. It happens by humans cooperating together, taking the challenges, the problems seriously and just trying to do a little bit better than they did before.鈥�
Read more of Matthew鈥檚 story here. >>
The internet and social media are fun and scary, inspiring and draining, supportive and sometimes addictive. In this dizzying online world, Vanderbilt doctoral candidate is a guide, using research and partnerships to turn social media uncertainty into social flourishing.
The key to her work is collaborating with the very teenagers she wants to help.
鈥淢y ultimate goal is to improve the relationships that teens have with technology by co-designing solutions with them that work in their everyday lives,鈥� said Hanebutt, who is earning her Ph.D. through the in Vanderbilt鈥檚
Using skills she鈥檚 honed through community-engaged research with the , Hanebutt has found that, 鈥渢eens not only love to be a part of the research process and learn a lot from it, but they also are really the experts of their own lived experience.鈥�
ALUMNI COLLABORATION
Hanebutt鈥檚 continued research is being used as part of a partnership with Larissa 鈥淟arz鈥� May, BA鈥�16, Vanderbilt alumna and founder of the youth-based digital advocacy and empowerment platform .
Using her expertise in teen-centered methods, Hanebutt leads a teen advisory board with young people around the country. Hanebutt conducts research to make sure the work #HalfTheStory is doing is evidence-based and the programs being designed have the intended impact of helping empower young people to flourish in the ever-changing digital space.
鈥淲hen I met Larz at Vanderbilt, she helped me understand the gap in this social media space and that we can be in schools and online, talking to teens about social media issues that directly impact them and helping parents understand what the heck is going on online with their kids,鈥� she said.
鈥淰anderbilt is an inspiration and innovation incubator,鈥� said Hanebutt. 鈥淲e all come here with these amazing ideas and dreams. But being able to truly let these ideas incubate together and meet collaborators and get advice while taking rigorous classes, all of those things jumbled up together allows those ideas to truly become so much bigger and better than what we came here with.鈥�
Read more of Rachel鈥檚 story here.>>
- Share your Commencement photos by tagging #VU2024
- Find all the latest celebration details on the
听