This week, the Campus sat down with Amari Simpson '16, a Posse Scholar and Neuroscience major from Chicago who is active in the Student Government Administration and has also done cancer research.
Middlebury Campus: Tell me about yourself and what you do on campus.
Amari Simpson: Most of the time I go from doing something that gradually leads to me being the face of something. As a freshman in high school, I started in a simple position in student council, which gradually led me to become vice-president of that and vice-president of my class year. I remember one of my goals then was to meet as many seniors graduating with me as possible, so that was 483. Out of all of the seniors, I met 450, knew their names, face and what they were considering for a college choice. I worked on trying to meet them past the superficial. So I really appreciate genuine relationships and I try to carry forth with that in everything that I do.
MC: How do you like being the Director of Student Organizations?
AS: I report to Rachel [Liddell] but ultimately it is like taking the president position of a specific position. I love what I am doing but at the same time I am like, “Let me tell someone else to do it!” But being able to be in a key position and being responsible for a number of things is inspiring.
MC: What do you like about neuroscience?
AS: I love astronomy because we are learning about something that is so far out of our reach but we put so much effort into learning about it. I feel the brain is also its own little universe and we’re trying to get in so many nitty-gritty details about how it functions and how we are as we are. I find that that study, right now, can never end because there is always something new to learn about it. The drive leading us to find everything we can is what is most fascinating. I don’t think about the end point, I think about leading up to it.
MC: What was it like coming from Chicago and moving to Middlebury?
AS: I’m a Posse scholar from Chicago and so we had a lot of conversations about going from an urban city life to something that might appear slower or might come off as different than you’re used to. I’ve done research in Bethesda and Philadelphia and I’ve gotten bits of life outside Chicago. I realized there is a range of fast-paced and slow-paced life and that I am very adaptable. Going from Chicago to here, yes, it was extreme…But I have made things work as best as I can in terms of making sure I am staying involved with past relationships I’ve had, making sure I’m active in trying to form new relationships and maintain what I create with those.
MC: What was the research in Bethesda?
AS: The research that I did was at the National Cancer Institute, specifically at the Tissue array Research Program. Formalin at that time was known to be a solution that after we extracted a tissue or brain we would place that organ within that solution and we would prepare it to be preserved for long-term use. It was important because a lot of cancer research involves researching patients that have passed away as a result of some invasive or very malignant related cancer. So our goal was to make sure that we are able to preserve whatever tissue or organ that the cancer impacted and we are able to better see how it evolved, why did it become as problematic as it was and be able to go forward and have better research applications.
MC: So 2016 was the first Chicago Posse class at Middlebury –what was that like?
AS: We were really nervous having New York as a partnership because we were worried about our dynamics being very conflicting because Chicago has its own ego, New York has its own ego. In so many ways they don’t compare and do compare, like pizza, style, rappers, etc. A lot of my Posse concerns were about not being able to connect with New York Posse. But now being on campus and seeing how close we are, that’s something that we’ve really loved. It’s similar to the idea of MTV’s Real World – you’re taking 12 random strangers, putting them together in a group and expecting them to rely on each other, respect each other. We’re always concerned that might not happen and we’ve become very open-minded that if that wasn’t to happen it’s okay to have differing Posses. As long as we’re the best individual people we can be, that can resonate in being a leader for people who are younger than you.
MC: You are also interested in photography, isn’t that right?
AS: I feel like pictures can say so many words just by capturing an event or two people talking. I love photography because it is a visual reminder. [Simpson shows a photo on his phone wallpaper of Battell Hall]. Battell was my first year dorm, so many good things happened there in terms of making friendships and sustaining that through Wonnacott commons and being an RA. That is something that I like to do in terms of photography, capturing memories.
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