My name is Aviance and I traveled six hours by plane.
But if I would've drove, it would've been 20 hours.
My name is Felipe Campano.
I am from Miami and I use they/them pronouns.
So I traveled the entire East Coast.
So my name is Felix Bhattacharya.
I use the he series pronouns.
How far I traveled is sort of a complicated story:
I was born in Newton, Massachusetts,
which is really close to here,
but then actually ended up moving to Berlin, Germany.
Lived there for a few years
and then eventually moved to Pittsburgh.
So about a 10-hour drive,
but it's been a long road to come back to Boston.
So I think that everyone here
just has a really good mindset.
Everybody's really happy to be here
and I'm just happy to be at such a pretty place
with people who are so excited to be around other people.
My first impressions of Tufts is definitely chaotic,
friendly, and just... I don't exactly have a word for it.
It's just.. "Go, go, go!"
- [Felix] Campus is beautiful.
I'm actually living off-campus in the Hyatt hotel,
but campus overall is just amazing
and so green and so powerful and light and bright.
I'm most excited about meeting all my friends
and getting involved with student clubs
and things like that on campus.
Yeah, I think all the Tufts students share similar values.
We all care a lot about equity and inclusion.
I know Tufts is sort of becoming an anti-racist institution
and all the students here share those similar values.
So I'm gonna be majoring in environmental studies
and I'm hoping to work in agriculture and sustainability
and so I'm really excited to be able to learn
more about what it is I'll be working in in the future
and how I can kind of start dividing up my work.
That would definitely be my tennis rackets.
I played tennis in high school
and Tufts has fantastic courts here.
Everywhere I walk, I seem to see tennis courts.
Actually, tennis courts are the first thing that I saw
when I came to the campus,
where I had to get my COVID testing
and there's indoor tennis courts right there.
So I'm glad I brought my tennis rackets
and I'm definitely gonna be playing in the future.
One item I definitely had to bring was my sewing machine.
I'm sort of a person, I'm, like, "Oh, this is really cute!"
But then I'm, like, "I could make that!"
So the sewing machine had to come.
I'm not sure.
My earrings, I guess.
So I make my own earrings, usually out of seashells
or sea glass that I find on the beach
and I had a few that I've made that hang
or a few that are little studs
and so I brought those with me
because everybody needs earrings, you know?
Yeah, Carm is the better lunchroom.
There's no doubt about it.
Thinking back on the process,
when I first learned about the school,
it was from a current student and just her description
and who she was--it just seemed like the perfect fit for her
and I kind of saw myself in her.
And then, during my interview,
my interviewer knew the person that I knew,
so it was just kind of like overlapping.
I feel like this is a sign.
And then the essay that I wrote for Tufts
was actually the one that I had the most fun with.
I didn't plan it very much.
It was just kind of like, let me have fun and it worked out.
So I was, yeah, this is definitely the place.
People care about others.
I think that's what's really important about this place
and you notice that just walking around campus.
Whoever's around, they'll introduce themselves
and they'll ask you, "What's a fun fact about you?"
And people really remember each other
and people are so polite here. And Tufts is also a place
where you can explore new things,
but you can do what you love.
So I've found that I'm interested in cultures
and international relations.
So I'm here to study international relations,
but I'm making friends with engineers, with chemists.
And so these are connections and bonds
that will last forever and in the future,
in my career, will also be very important.