On March 22rd, 2022, Vanderbilt announced its new logo. It helps us recognize each other and lets us find a home in one another no matter where we are in this world. The logo is beautiful because it is simple, and it uses negative space to create meaning. Its asymmetry reminds me that our community is imperfect, but its unity in both shape and color signifies hope. The logo is a gentle reminder of both our history and hope for the future that a small acorn can, in fact, become a majestic oak tree. The oak leaf is a symbol of small certainties, such as the fact that the leaves will turn red, or that the flowers will bloom again after an arduous winter.
Acorn and oak leaf meaning free#
While I can spend my days discovering and learning in different lecture halls or labs, I can come home to Rand cookies, Falafel at Midnight, reminisce about the tunnel connecting Towers or try to make a quilt out of all the free T-shirts from campus events. It represents all the times I have found myself sitting in the basement of a research building adorned with stone acorns, staring at a chubby rodent soaking in the sun next to the window. The oak leaf symbolizes our uncanny pride in our squirrel-to-student ratio, the fact that we are somehow an arboretum in the middle of a bustling city and the fact that my professors have become my family away from home. The softness of the oak leaf is reflective of a sense of vulnerability and sincerity that I have continuously experienced while interacting with fellow students, professors and staff, who have made Vanderbilt my home.
The logo tells me that, while Vanderbilt is first and foremost an academic institution, it is also a community of trust and compassion. It is bold and crisp but also friendly and inviting. The logo wasn’t something I paid much attention to until I decided to apply-but it made me sure of my choice. Despite my attempts to distance myself from Vanderbilt, on sleepless nights, I often found myself reading through my tattered copy of Vanderbilt’s school profile and tracing the logo, a proud V with an oak leaf and an acorn, with my fingers. I refused to tour the campus virtually or look up any pictures of the campus throughout the application process because I convinced myself that the inevitable blow of a rejection would be softened if I didn’t get attached to any specific aspects of the school.
It means trading everything you know for uncertainty that could potentially be glorious-but also disastrous. While this will always ring true to me, my close family and friends know of one more response that I often offer as a joke but is the most sincere I chose to stay at Vanderbilt partly because of the logo.Īs an international student, I once wrote that choosing to attend Vanderbilt is like a lottery. Now that I have transitioned to becoming a staff member at the university, my answer is even simpler: Vanderbilt is my home. I knew I made the right decision based on interactions with my admissions counselor, the first person that became my Vanderbilt. When I became a summer tour guide my sophomore year, my “Why Vanderbilt” answer developed into telling prospective students that it was the community that made Vanderbilt worthwhile. I distinctly remember crafting a Word document delineating why I decided to attend a university that is a 34-hour flight away from home, that I’ve never seen or visited, all for my visa interview. I’ve been asked this question many times, and my response has changed notoriously over the years, each reflecting what Vanderbilt meant to me at different points of my journey.Īs a high school senior from Vietnam, I was in awe of the limitless classes that had oddly niche and fascinating names, such as The History and Science of Brewing or Hollywood Hanoi. Correction: A previous version of this article stated the release of Vanderbilt’s new logo was Mainstead of Maan image of a Bicentennial Oak tree has been updated.
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