Foundations: The Values Behind Our Vision, Spring 2026

By some cruel paradox, 8.2 billion individuals crowded onto this planet still ache for community. Despite growing populations and a resurgence in urban migration, it takes more than human proximity to quiet the loneliness each one of us feels in our search for a place to belong. The Survey Center on American Life recently found […]

I imagine infinities prior. The galaxies have always just existed. Steady State. No beginning. No end. Thirteen point eight billion years ago. I feel a wave of heat pierce my skin, like a breath of fire, fleeting and sharp in its encounter. The rush of a million hot, oozing particles— flying like comets through the […]

Nothingness is too simple (i was running up
the mountain before it got dark. a storm was
moving in, almost imperceptible—the subtle
changes. wind speed, cloud cover, humidity.
The landscape sunken, thirsting for rain)
only a crazy sort of nothingness could flip into something;
cannot nothing be known from nothing?

“Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?” — Mary Oliver [1] The older I get, the more often I find myself grieving the ache of passing time. I’ve often reflected with peers on how so many adults told us that time would pass quicker as we got older, but no […]

At any given Wednesday around 1 AM, you can find the libraries of Vanderbilt filled with computer screens, energy drinks, and students furiously typing away at assignments, prepping for job interviews, or cramming for exams, driven by a hunger to work. This obsession over work has practically become an identity that we pride ourselves in. […]

We live in a world of mirrors. On any given day, we are forced to face our own reflection countless times—in bathroom mirrors, hallway mirrors, car windows, and front-facing phone cameras. It often feels impossible to escape our reflection and the constant reminder that we are being seen and perceived by others. We strive to […]