Undergraduate Programs

Student Spotlight

Vanessa Caruso

Vanessa Caruso, a junior at IU, transferred here last year after taking a year off from college. Upon her return to school, she felt as if she had been endowed with a new motivation and a desire to make her mark. She quickly became a staff writer at the IDS and covered events that she wanted others to know about such as protests against the war and environmental issues. She also joined INPIRG, the Indiana Public Interest Group and became an active member of the Recycling Campaign.

After working with a group of dedicated individuals for a semester, she was asked to run the Recycling Campaign in the spring. This was the first time that she had ever taken a formal leadership role. She worked hard with these dedicated students to collect research and evidence that the university community wished to see better recycling practices on campus. Meanwhile, her love for the earth became an obsession, due to her work on this campaign and the Religious Studies class she was taking at the time, "Religion, Ecology, and the Self."

In April 2004 she worked closely with a few organizers to put together an Earth Day Celebration, complete with a parade, a tree planting, music, and dancing. At the end of the school year she was voted into the position as INPIRG's Board Chair. During the summer, while preparing for this undertaking, she also continued to actively study the environment. She continued to nurture her passion, attending IU's Permaculture class and a seminar through the Institute for Humane Studies titled "People and the Environment."

When she returned to IU in the fall of 2005, she felt she had new eyes. She spent much of the semester working hard to increase youth voter turnout. She led the campus campaign which collectively registered over 4,000 new voters. This local effort was part of the national New Voters Project that registered close to 400,000 new voters. Since Election Day, she has been working on the next campaign that she will lead. Working with a team of dedicated volunteers, she hopes to convince IU to purchase recycled office paper.

Academically, she is now focused on fusing her interests with activism and journalism into a program of study at IU. Recently accepted into the Individualized Major Program, Vanessa is working closely with Journalism professor, Carol Polsgrove, to explore the media's presentation of the environmental movement and the implications that this has on the movement's ability to succeed. Between this study, and her Religious Studies major, Vanessa hopes to leave IU with a good understanding of the current environmental movement's limitations. She hopes that this understanding will help her find new ways to approach this issue as she continues to work for the cause through journalism and activism.

Vanessa is committed to helping young people realize that they are powerful. As she works to change IU, she is constantly recruiting more people to get involved. In October, she helped lead a workshop on student activism titled "If Not You, Who? If Not Now, When?" as a part of the Bioneers Conference. She is also currently developing a weekly radio program for community radio station WFHB that will help to inspire and connect young people to local activism opportunities. When she's done with all of her work, Vanessa likes to kick back and dance. This semester Vanessa joined IU's African American Dance Company. Even though her plate is always full, she feels that dancing and performing is a necessary part of her life.