The Bored Student

Epidemiology, Cultural Expectations, Finding Your Field | Alec Nema

Master’s in Public Health student Alec Nema describes his academic and personal journey to epidemiology in this guest-hosted episode of The Bored Student. Sociology undergraduate student Rachel Kisela discusses with Alec his struggles with cultural expectations as well as the opportunities and advantages for men entering traditionally women-dominated fields

Music, Self Belief, Inspiration - Tyler Bardzilowski (BARDZ)

A singer, songwriter, and music producer from the small town of San Clemente, California. The story behind him growing his fanbase,  getting on stage with Deadmau5, Vince Staples, and having close to one million streams on Spotify this past year is super interesting and full of details you really wouldn’t expect. For example, he spent most of his college trying to balance Pre-med studies with music, until he was hit with a big realization his Junior year. In our chat, we talk about his transition from being a college student to making music full time, the timeline of landing his first show, and all the challenges that came along the way.

Therapy, Energy, Dance Marathon | Zach Smith

Today's guest is from Colorado, and is a senior at UW. He has a really easy going energy, and it was a lot of fun chatting about his interests. We talked about mental health among college students and the normalization of therapy. Social media and its role in our lives, and the dance marathon club and how he got started in that.

Collegiate Music, Medical School | Nicole Stankovic

Our guest today is a Collegiate Piano player and Pre-med student at the University of Washington. She’s a really unique guest. Most people I have on figure out what they want to do while in college or even after they’ve graduated, but Nicole knew from a very young age she wanted to play the piano and go to medical school and she committed to those two goals for years. Sounds like she got it from her Mom, who started the longest-running Chinese restaurant in Park City. She is from Utah, and we talk about her commitment to learning the piano all the way into college, what getting to the next level of playing looked like for her, and how she got interested in medical school. Website - theboredstudent.com Insta - @alexdumitri

Mental Health, Music, Fame | Eric Nakassa

Today's guest is a graduated senior who majored in industrial design. He was a pretty big social media personality in high school with around half a million followers on Vine, he played in a band in college, and throughout it all, he had a great support group of family and friends. We talked about some of his battles with mental health, what it was like having so many fans at such a young age, and his college days of music and design. Our conversation starts with a conversation he had with his Mom after getting rejected fro the University of Washington.