Piazza Verdi (as in the composer Gieuseppi Verdi) in Bologna is UB’s equivalent of Washington Square at NYU. They have this ritual abuse of students receiving their Ph.D. degree where they wear a laurel wreath and dress (or cross-dress or partially dress) with a ribbon of a different color depending on the field you’re in (white for humanities, red for medicine, etc.). The poor graduate is accompanied through the streets by a rowdy group of friends chanting ''Dottore, Dottore!'' while they all get smashed.
New York University student Vanessa Csordas-Jenkins admires the talent of comedians Tina Fey (“30 Rock”) and Amy Poehler (“Parks & Recreation”) and aspires to follow in their footsteps as a host of “Saturday Night Live.” Also a painter, Vanessa Csordas-Jenkins proudly displays a potrait she created of Tina Fey. A theatre history and dramatic literature major in her last year at NYU, she has been performing since high school. In addition to participating on the varsity tennis team, she had a role in an original musical called “Night at the Bijou,” and performed a song at her graduation.
Through her work as a writer and comedian and having made her own personal commitment to living a vegetarian life, Vanessa Csordas-Jenkins hopes to influence positive change in the world’s outlook on environmental sustainability, climate change, and women’s issues. With her family, she has traveled throughout the world and developed a strong interest in these global concerns.
Highly accomplished, Vanessa Csordas-Jenkins received a World Championship Certificate of Achievement for her participation in Canyon Crest Academy’s FIRST Tech Robotics Competition. An honors student, she earned a letter of commendation from the National Merit Scholarship program and an AP Scholar with Distinction Award. Fluent in Spanish, she tutored less fortunate Spanish-speaking children through the Solana Beach, California, outreach program Casa de Amistad.