What the Wond’ry has to offer
I have been at the Wond’ry for three weeks now, and it has been a blast. On the job after a long morning of football and classes I’m tired, but boy oh boy does the Wond’ry give me some energy. It’s the newest building on campus and is adjacent to the new engineering building. As I sit down in our space, I begin to see how open the Wond’ry is. All of the windows allowing the sun to come in and give us natural light are amazing. That alone makes this building stand out, but next we have the Au Bon Pain right across the hallway with some delicious snacks; my personal favorite is the cherry danish.
Enough of that, now back to the inside of the magical Wond’ry. It has 3 floors and a beautiful spiral stairway to connect them. The first floor is what we call the Sizzle Floor because of the cool art and exhibits it features. Plus, when you walk in you get to see all of the beautiful faces of the Wond’ry staff and Student Ambassadors. As you walk up the steps to the second floor, which is called our Makerspace Floor, hold up and watch your step! There are water and fish on the ground! Just playing. It’s one of the many technology displays the Wond’ry has in place to interact with our visitors.
Now back to the second floor; it has two makerspaces—one is an electrical and the other is for more physical craftsmanship. Now we head to the final floor: The Cerebral Floor. It has mentors from the Nashville community and teachers who want to help students with the innovation process and the ins and outs of how to get their ideas actually up and running. The Wond’ry was built to help the Vanderbilt community become closer with each other and also help with the innovation process. We have two programs you can participate in that will help with this. The first program is called pre-flight and the second is post-flight.
Come back next week to see how my experience has grown and the challenges I have faced. Here’s a little bit of motivation to get you through your week:
“It takes nothing to join the crowd. It takes everything to stand alone”
Have a great week and be great!
Emmanuel Smith
Student Ambassador
Class of 2018
Environmental sociology