The Yariverse

A Lady sitting on a Throne.

On my first day at Columbia University, I found the hidden owl in the Alma Mater. 

Now every time I pass the Alma Mater, I remember the time I fell down the stairs and the friend that helped me regain myself after the fall. It hadn’t even rained. Thankfully, it had been so cold that day that not a lot of students had seen the tumble. Still, the embarrassment set in. Bruises took three weeks to heal. Slight cuts had to be covered up by a few band aides, one that I kept and framed as a reminder to be careful where I step. 

I often wonder how many other countless students experienced such a fall? How many turned into leaders, despite the impending imposter syndrome that sweeps in as it did that day to me? Did they have a friend that helped them up? How many of them questioned how much they deserved to be in a space that not many of them before them had gotten into? How many of them witnessed history as we do now change before us?

All these thoughts just from a fall.

The Alma Mater statue turned 122 on September 23, 2025, in the fall semester of my master’s program. Though its concept is much older than Columbia University, Columbia College and King’s College itself, there’s lot of history to tell. An idea that can be traced back to 1088 in the University of Bologna. “Alma Mater Studiorum” translates to “nourishing mother of studies” 

Daniel Chester unveiled the statute in 1903, before Columbia came to be what it is now, back when it was Columbia College. Chester referenced the Greek goddess Athena when he crafted her, and hid an owl that for years people debated even existed. 

The Alma Mater then went on to become the human representation of the University’s mission. 

Bet you didn’t know a woman named Harriete Goelet gifted Columbia the Alma Mater statue.

Yet it wasn’t until Fall of 1983 that Columbia first admitted women to study. It’s only been forty two years since women have been allowed into a space like this, less than that when you consider them of Latin decent, even less as you narrow it down by country. We often forget our achievements as we are making them, the trail that was forged before us. 

That’s what I stared at that day when I fell down the stairs, a reminder not of what came before me, but what can come after me. That day I agreed to be president of the Latin Club, to rebuild it into what it can be.

We often deal with imposter syndrome in our lives. Feeling unworthy despite what we’ve done. I have friends who are light years ahead of me and still feel it. I hope wherever you are reading this from, that you don’t let the idea that you’re not capable enough to discourage you from taking space. 

With this post I welcome the importance of community, of taking up space, and the introduction of my co-host and the Vanniesphere in the coming weeks.