VCU news

By Elinor Frisa

With more than 30,000 students, 188,000 alumni and 22,000 faculty and staff, Virginia Commonwealth University has no shortage of people with stories to tell. VCU’s #ThisIsMyReal Instagram account helps share those stories, one week at a time.

The takeover account, which launched in 2016, is a window into VCU that shows what life at —  and after — VCU is really like. Below we’ve gathered nine takeovers that give a sense of the wide range of stories and experiences illuminated every day on #ThisIsMyReal.

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Lauren Wood

Not surprisingly, Lauren Wood’s takeover had an outdoorsy theme. Lauren is a Ph.D. student in VCU’s Integrative Life Sciences program and works in the Coastal Plant Ecology Lab. During her takeover week, she took us along on a trip to Hog Island, where she was doing research on the expansion of wax myrtle shrubs; a hike in a North Carolina nature preserve, just for fun; a Cessna 172 Skyhawk plane ride with her lab colleagues to look at plant growth on Virginia barrier islands from the air; and a classroom outing to the VCU Rice Rivers Center, where she cored trees as part of her Forest Ecology class. And she introduced us to her adorable pup, Ramona Flowers Wood. View Lauren’s takeover.

Andrea Nguyen

Senior psychology major Andrea Nguyen’s enthusiasm and student leadership skills shone through as she gave us a peek into her life as an undergrad at VCU. Her passions include educating people about food insecurity and the importance of mental health. She gave us an inside look at RamPantry, VCU’s student food pantry, where she volunteers. As the founder of VCU’s chapter of Active Minds, a mental health advocacy group, she shared examples of how she practices mindfulness during her busy college schedule. Did we mention that she started each and every post with a song suggestion? View Andrea’s takeover.

Marshall Roach

During his #ThisIsMyReal week, alumnus Marshall Roach showed us what life after VCU can be like. After graduating from the School of the Arts in 2013 with a degree in graphic design, he moved to New York City and put his love of photography to good use by getting a job shooting and designing social content for Estee Lauder’s Lab Series for men. His pics show what his day-to-day work life looks like, as well as, of course, the glorious and colorful Big Apple. Best of all, he shared a list of all the items he keeps in his bag “at all times when running through the city creating content.” View Marshall’s takeover.

Wrigley

A lot goes into being a therapy dog, as was plain to see when Wrigley, a VCU Dogs on Call therapy dog, took us along on some of his hospital visits. Wrigley enlightened us about the requirements he had to meet before joining Dogs on Call and the benefits that patients and staff receive from spending time with dogs like him. Highlights of the week included getting to meet his sister, Oakley; seeing a photo of Wrigley as a puppy for Throwback Thursday; and getting to watch Wrigley’s teeth-brushing routine. View Wrigley’s takeover.

Roxanne Jassawalla

Last summer, Roxanne Jassawalla, a rising senior studying electrical engineering, got to travel to Barcelona as part of a robotics study abroad program started by VCU professor John Speich, Ph.D. Roxanne showed us some of the city’s most famous sites, including some architectural feats by Antoni Gaudí, and introduced us to some human and nonhuman friends at the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics. View Roxanne’s takeover.

Nicole Rutledge

What kinds of careers do VCU grads have? Nicole Rutledge helped answer that question with her takeover. She graduated from VCU School of the Arts in 2011 with a degree in interior design and has since opened her own interior design business in Richmond. Her photos taught us that there’s more to interior design than picking out décor. She showed us a few of the places she’s worked on, as well as some of the tools she uses to get the job done. View Nicole’s takeover.

Levi Procter

VCU Health is an important part of the university’s DNA, and trauma surgeon Levi Procter, M.D., helped us understand the often stressful but also rewarding day-to-day life of the health care providers at VCU’s academic medical center. He told us a bit about what he does each week, from saving lives to teaching medical students, to training providers in rural areas of Virginia. He also showed us how he unwinds at the end of a taxing day and shared his path to becoming a trauma surgeon (spoiler alert: 15 years total education including time spent on degrees and residencies). View Levi’s takeover.

Fajir Amin

Two-time VCU alumna Fajir Amin used her takeover to share tales from her recent travels to Delma Island, a tiny island in the Arabian Gulf that is part of the United Arab Emirates, where she put her master’s in education to good use by teaching elementary school for two years. Her experience there inspired her to apply for a Fulbright grant, which she subsequently received, to study the effects of looping. Looping is when a teacher stays with the same group of students for more than one year. Her adventures included dealing with mischievous students, whose frequent pranks included tampering with the water main at her apartment, and organizing a Chinese lantern send-off at the end of her time on Delma. View Fajir’s takeover.

Chaz Barracks

Ph.D. student Chaz Barracks emphasized the importance of diversity and connecting with people through stories during his takeover week. He gave us a glimpse of what he’s doing in his media, art and text Ph.D. program and how he takes what he’s learning out of the classroom and into the community by participating in RVA First Fridays and being a project coordinator for VCU’s Bridging Richmond program. He also shared some photos — and lessons learned — from the two years he spent teaching at a high school in Japan before grad school, including a snapshot of the gorgeous view from the top of Mount Fuji. View Chaz’s takeover.