Features | Revisiting the Class of 2000

I N T E R V I E W S - B Y - J E N N I F E R - R A I N E Y - (A B J - '0 0) -
A N D - S T A C I E - S U T T O N - (A B J - '9 9, - B S - '0 0)

our years ago, Georgia Magazine interviewed seven freshmen from the Class of 2000 and posed the question: Will they be special?

In recent weeks, GM's two editorial assistants—both of whom are members of the Class of 2000—sat down with those same seven students to discuss their experiences at UGA and see how they've changed during their college years.

The Class of 2000 will always enjoy a degree of notoriety because of the zeros after their degrees. But one thing became obvious in the course of the interviews: If these seven students are a litmus test, then the Class of 2000 is pretty typical.

Four of the seven students changed their majors; one graduated early and one is staying on for a fifth year; one is headed to medical school and another will choose between law and medicine; two say their entire perception of themselves has changed; the only Greek in the bunch says he owes everything to his fraternity; neither of the two athletes completed their college eligibility; one says she doesn't imagine herself in Sanford Stadium cheering for the Dogs, while another is paying an extra year of tuition to do just that.

By the time they're 30, the makeup of this group might be two doctors, an entrepreneur, an accountant, a singer, a teacher, and . . . well, Jared Kirschner just isn't sure yet.

Like we said, pretty typical of this generation—which, thanks to a booming economy, isn't worried about landing a job, but is concerned about finding one that's inspiring.

BRAD REGISTER
Roswell
Microbiology

What's next: Medical school
have a 4.0 here at UGA, but I took joint enrollment classes as a senior in high school and made B's—so technically I'm not a First Honor Graduate. It upsets my mom because otherwise I'd be graduating at the top of my class.
I knew I had to make good grades if I wanted to go to medical school, so I let med school be my motivation. Studying for the MCAT was hard. I taught myself instead of taking a course. That's why it's hard for me to consider a private school like Johns Hopkins. I've been accepted there, but I've always been a do-it-yourself type person. My dad said he'd pay for half of it, but I know if I go to a public school like MCG that I'll work hard and learn the same amount. But I think I want to go into orthopedic surgery, and it's really competitive where you get your residency. It may not be fair, but the reputation of where you went to medical school makes a big difference.
As for being on the football team here, some people are shocked when they come to Georgia and they're not a star. I came here expecting it to be what it is—stiff competition. I thought I'd play more, but I really didn't have any control over how it happened—and I don't need lots of attention to feel good about myself.
I'm not returning for my fifth year of eligibility because of being unsure whether I'd play. But I wish I could stay another year or two here. I think everybody does. UGA is something I can always come back to, especially having been a football player. You hear people say they never want to go back to their high school when they graduate. You don't hear that here.

DHRUTI CONTRACTOR
Stone Mountain
Political Science

What's next: Master's in public health, then med school or law school
changed my major from biochemistry the last quarter of my sophomore year. Biochemistry didn't seem like the best way to help people. I also dropped out of school that quarter because I was doing way too much. I was so overwhelmed with school work and ICE (Indian Cultural Exchange) and other volunteer work outside of school. I went home and rested.
What I really wanted to do was public health policy. The summer after I dropped out of school, I spent time in India to promote AIDS/HIV awareness. I also worked in Geneva last summer with the United Nations' High Commission for Human Rights. The Foundation Fellows program is what gave me all these opportunities to travel. I've also been to Italy, Hawaii, Greece, China, Thailand, and India, where I talked to students about HIV and AIDS. These kids are so young and unaware, but awareness is easy to instill at a young age.
My perception of myself has changed since 1997. I just didn't think about myself back then; now I do. I did what I needed to do, and got my school work taken care of. Now I think about the deeper meaning behind what I do. I can choose what I want to do because I have so much freedom.
UGA is a great institution for public education. I talk to my Ivy League friends, and they don't see the variety that I see here. I'll always see UGA as a biosphere of people. I don't think you can say that about smaller universities that are private.
I'll get my master's in public health, hopefully at Yale, within the next two years. That will help me decide if I want to go to medical school or law school. When I changed my major at the end of my sophomore year, it was a really rough time for me. Now I feel better prepared to make a decision. I want to help people; I just need to figure out the best way.

JAMELIA DAVIS
Shulerville, S.C.
Music Performance

What's next: Master's in voice performance
ello was my major instrument. But when I got tendinitis and couldn't play, I changed to music performance, declared voice as my major instrument, and won a voice competition. I have so many options: opera, oratorium performances, freelancing.
Some of my best experiences have come outside the classroom. As soon as I got to Georgia, I got involved with the Georgia Recruitment Team. We do the information sessions for prospective students, and talk about how great UGA is. I'm also in Tapestry, an admissions program for minority recruitment. I don't think there's a problem with our admissions process—such a small percentage of it is based on race. They're making it a bigger deal than it is. The main problem is that we're not getting enough black applicants. I don't know if they're intimidated by the lack of diversity, but something is pushing them away. There are more diverse colleges in Atlanta, plus historically black schools. But my view is: College needs to prepare you for the real world, and in the real world you're still going to be in the minority. That's how I look at it.
I tried to start a chapter of the co-ed music fraternity, Delta Omicron. I got a lot of people's support, and someone from the national organization came down for the founding of the UGA chapter—but I was the only person who showed up. Even though it never came together, the effort got me a lot of respect from the faculty. That year, I was awarded the Outstanding Sophomore Music Major award. I learned that even if you fail at something, you can still have success later on.
In five years, I hope to have a master's degree in voice performance. I'd like to be freelancing, participating in opera apprenticeships, and be featured on a CD. As long as I'm happy, I think I can be successful at whatever I do.

JARED KIRSCHNER
Savannah
Speech Comm

What's next: "Mike Man" for another year
t was a big change coming from a small high school, but getting involved made UGA seem smaller. One of the best things I did was deciding to pledge my fraternity, Tau Epsilon Phi. This past year, I was president of the fraternity, which was great, but a lot of responsibility. I've made so many friends, and it's given me a lot of good memories.
Being in a fraternity opened more opportunities for me than anything else. Like when I was sitting in the stands at a football game my freshman year, and some of my brothers suggested I try out for "Mike Man"—the fire-up-the-Dogs guy who works the loud speaker. Luckily, I got it, and now I've been the Mike Man for three years.
I lose my voice a lot, but it's worth it. I've met a whole new group of friends within cheerleading and I've also become friends with some of the players—and not just football because we do basketball and gymnastics, too. Plus, we get to travel to away games, which is great. I get to see what other schools are like, and I've found out that Georgia is the best of them all.
When I first came to school, I said I wanted to be president of SGA; unfortunately, that didn't happen. This year, I ran for vice president. Even though we didn't win, it was a great experience. I met a ton of people; we talked to so many campus organizations every night for two weeks. It was pretty stressful. You learn a lot by doing the interviews and the debates. People who ran in the past told me, "Just do it. Even if you don't win, it's a great experience." And it was.
If I could go back, I don't think I'd change anything about my time at UGA. It's been the best four years of my life. Every graduate I've talked to says, "We wish we were back . . . take your time." I think students should stay as long as they can, because it's not going to get any better than this.

JENNY STEIN
Athens
Finance

What's next: Job with D.C. accounting firm
ince I'm from here, I'm pretty involved in the Athens community. For the last four years, I have been involved with the Athens-Clarke County Mentor Program. I've had the same little brother for three years. We do all kinds of things together. My younger brother is his same age, and the three of us go to baseball games, football games, hang out at my Mom's house, and have sleepovers. It gives me such a good feeling when I come into his class and every kid runs over to me. It makes you realize that you can't take anything for granted because some of these kids just have nothing.
For my first two years, I played soccer for UGA. Being on the team was great because it gave me so many friends. The first day of school, I already had 20 people that I knew really well. It was also fun because we got to travel a lot to see other schools. But I hurt my back in September of my junior year and that was it for me. I had to quit.
I miss playing soccer, but quitting has given me more opportunities to do other things. The team was very time-consuming. We had practice, games, road trips, and there wasn't much time for other things. For instance, when I was on the team we had to stay in Athens over the summer for practice. After I quit the team, I was able to travel during the summer and do two internships with Johnson Lambert, an accounting firm in Washington, D.C.
What I did outside of the classroom definitely affected me inside the classroom. My first two years, I was an accounting major. Then I did an internship in accounting and realized I didn't like it, so I switched to finance. Now I've just accepted a job in Washington, D.C. with the same firm I interned with. Because of my internship experience, I feel like I'm ahead of the game right now. My internships helped me get a job working part-time in Athens at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which is an investment bank. And they also helped me get my job in Washington.

MELISSA BUGBEE
Watkinsville
Art History

What's next: Master's in art history, then teaching
hen I came out of high school, I labeled myself as the smart girl. Now I feel a lot more comfortable and free. I get good grades, but that's not what I'm about. I've changed a lot here. I know more about who I am.
I'm happy about choosing UGA over the Ivy League schools I could have attended. Educationally, it was strong. And financially, it was an excellent choice because now I'm not worrying about student loans. I can pretty much go wherever I want for grad school.
Travel through the Foundation Fellows program has been one of the most important things about being here at UGA. I did the summer study abroad program in Verona, I've been to China, and I've studied German at the Goethe Institute.
I don't know why I said I wanted to be a doctor back in '96. I was a biology major for three years before I decided it wasn't for me. I switched my major to art history, but I only had a few biology classes left so I decided to finish that degree too.
I decided to switch majors because it wasn't the type of work I wanted to be doing. It wasn't so much that I didn't like science, but I wasn't inspired by it. That was the semester when I also took my first art history class, and I was really excited about it. I started thinking I wanted to do something in liberal arts. I really enjoy art history because I like to write, and you can write more creatively than in science. I plan on attending graduate school in art history. After that, I want to teach.
I find it frustrating trying to educate myself on different world issues when it seems like there's so much background and these things have been going on for years. It's a problem of authority, of knowing who to listen to and who to trust. Today, people are really mistrustful of what they hear. I think that makes people frustrated.

OMAR SIMS
Athens
Speech Comm

What's next: Managing jewelry store at Mall of Georgia
just moved to Nashville, Tenn., after graduating from UGA in December. I'm training to manage a jewelry store at the new Mall of Georgia.
Even though I'm working in the business world, I decided not to major in business because I didn't just want to learn the theories behind it. Instead, I majored in speech communications, which gives you interpersonal skills and teaches you how to relate to people. While I was in school, I was a manager at the Athens Holiday Inn. I worked there for two and a half years. Working while I was in school really put things in perspective for me. It helped me to stay in focus and on track. For instance, a lot of things that I learned in college I was able to practice while working.
I also minored in drama at the University. I ended up doing two theater productions, one with the drama department and one with the Black Theatrical Ensemble, where I played Claudius in Hamlet. I also did two student films.
The professors I liked the most were those who challenged your ideas. Class was more a discussion than a lecture; a professor would throw out an idea and let you state how you felt about it. That's when I really started to learn, and those were the professors who made a difference to me.
I've learned I can do whatever I want, as long as I'm determined. You have to be determined to go to an 8 o'clock class every semester. You have to be determined to write so many papers. When I received my diploma in the mail, that didn't mean anything. It's what I did at UGA that's important.
Entrepreneurship—the idea that you can work for yourself and make an unlimited amount of money—is booming right now. I consider myself to be the embodiment of the idea that what you put in is what you get out. I feel I'm one of the leaders of this generation. I have a lot of confidence, and I bring a lot of new ideas to the table. I'm only 21 years old, but I've done so much already. Everywhere I go, people think they know me. I always tell them, "Remember the face and the name, because you'll see me again."
I've had a fulfilling college career, but I don't see myself at football games cheering for the Dogs. I'll remember UGA well, but not for that reason. I'm ready for graduation. I'll be sad to leave the people, but I'm ready to move on.

BRAD REGISTER Roswell Microbiology *What's next: Medical school*		have a 4.0 here at UGA, but I took joint enrollment classes as a senior in high school and made B's—so technically I'm not a First Honor Graduate. It upsets my mom because otherwise I'd be graduating at the top of my class. I knew I had to make good grades if I wanted to go to medical school, so I let med school be my motivation. Studying for the MCAT was hard. I taught myself instead of taking a course. That's why it's hard for me to consider a private school like Johns Hopkins. I've been accepted there, but I've always been a do-it-yourself type person. My dad said he'd pay for half of it, but I know if I go to a public school like MCG that I'll work hard and learn the same amount. But I think I want to go into orthopedic surgery, and it's really competitive where you get your residency. It may not be fair, but the reputation of where you went to medical school makes a big difference. As for being on the football team here, some people are shocked when they come to Georgia and they're not a star. I came here expecting it to be what it is—stiff competition. I thought I'd play more, but I really didn't have any control over how it happened—and I don't need lots of attention to feel good about myself. I'm not returning for my fifth year of eligibility because of being unsure whether I'd play. But I wish I could stay another year or two here. I think everybody does. UGA is something I can always come back to, especially having been a football player. You hear people say they never want to go back to their high school when they graduate. You don't hear that here.
DHRUTI CONTRACTOR Stone Mountain Political Science *What's next: Master's in public health, then med school or law school*		changed my major from biochemistry the last quarter of my sophomore year. Biochemistry didn't seem like the best way to help people. I also dropped out of school that quarter because I was doing way too much. I was so overwhelmed with school work and ICE (Indian Cultural Exchange) and other volunteer work outside of school. I went home and rested. What I really wanted to do was public health policy. The summer after I dropped out of school, I spent time in India to promote AIDS/HIV awareness. I also worked in Geneva last summer with the United Nations' High Commission for Human Rights. The Foundation Fellows program is what gave me all these opportunities to travel. I've also been to Italy, Hawaii, Greece, China, Thailand, and India, where I talked to students about HIV and AIDS. These kids are so young and unaware, but awareness is easy to instill at a young age. My perception of myself has changed since 1997. I just didn't think about myself back then; now I do. I did what I needed to do, and got my school work taken care of. Now I think about the deeper meaning behind what I do. I can choose what I want to do because I have so much freedom. UGA is a great institution for public education. I talk to my Ivy League friends, and they don't see the variety that I see here. I'll always see UGA as a biosphere of people. I don't think you can say that about smaller universities that are private. I'll get my master's in public health, hopefully at Yale, within the next two years. That will help me decide if I want to go to medical school or law school. When I changed my major at the end of my sophomore year, it was a really rough time for me. Now I feel better prepared to make a decision. I want to help people; I just need to figure out the best way.
JAMELIA DAVIS Shulerville, S.C. Music Performance *What's next: Master's in voice performance*		ello was my major instrument. But when I got tendinitis and couldn't play, I changed to music performance, declared voice as my major instrument, and won a voice competition. I have so many options: opera, oratorium performances, freelancing. Some of my best experiences have come outside the classroom. As soon as I got to Georgia, I got involved with the Georgia Recruitment Team. We do the information sessions for prospective students, and talk about how great UGA is. I'm also in Tapestry, an admissions program for minority recruitment. I don't think there's a problem with our admissions process—such a small percentage of it is based on race. They're making it a bigger deal than it is. The main problem is that we're not getting enough black applicants. I don't know if they're intimidated by the lack of diversity, but something is pushing them away. There are more diverse colleges in Atlanta, plus historically black schools. But my view is: College needs to prepare you for the real world, and in the real world you're still going to be in the minority. That's how I look at it. I tried to start a chapter of the co-ed music fraternity, Delta Omicron. I got a lot of people's support, and someone from the national organization came down for the founding of the UGA chapter—but I was the only person who showed up. Even though it never came together, the effort got me a lot of respect from the faculty. That year, I was awarded the Outstanding Sophomore Music Major award. I learned that even if you fail at something, you can still have success later on. In five years, I hope to have a master's degree in voice performance. I'd like to be freelancing, participating in opera apprenticeships, and be featured on a CD. As long as I'm happy, I think I can be successful at whatever I do.
JARED KIRSCHNER Savannah Speech Comm *What's next: "Mike Man" for another year*		t was a big change coming from a small high school, but getting involved made UGA seem smaller. One of the best things I did was deciding to pledge my fraternity, Tau Epsilon Phi. This past year, I was president of the fraternity, which was great, but a lot of responsibility. I've made so many friends, and it's given me a lot of good memories. Being in a fraternity opened more opportunities for me than anything else. Like when I was sitting in the stands at a football game my freshman year, and some of my brothers suggested I try out for "Mike Man"—the fire-up-the-Dogs guy who works the loud speaker. Luckily, I got it, and now I've been the Mike Man for three years. I lose my voice a lot, but it's worth it. I've met a whole new group of friends within cheerleading and I've also become friends with some of the players—and not just football because we do basketball and gymnastics, too. Plus, we get to travel to away games, which is great. I get to see what other schools are like, and I've found out that Georgia is the best of them all. When I first came to school, I said I wanted to be president of SGA; unfortunately, that didn't happen. This year, I ran for vice president. Even though we didn't win, it was a great experience. I met a ton of people; we talked to so many campus organizations every night for two weeks. It was pretty stressful. You learn a lot by doing the interviews and the debates. People who ran in the past told me, "Just do it. Even if you don't win, it's a great experience." And it was. If I could go back, I don't think I'd change anything about my time at UGA. It's been the best four years of my life. Every graduate I've talked to says, "We wish we were back . . . take your time." I think students should stay as long as they can, because it's not going to get any better than this.
JENNY STEIN Athens Finance *What's next: Job with D.C. accounting firm*		ince I'm from here, I'm pretty involved in the Athens community. For the last four years, I have been involved with the Athens-Clarke County Mentor Program. I've had the same little brother for three years. We do all kinds of things together. My younger brother is his same age, and the three of us go to baseball games, football games, hang out at my Mom's house, and have sleepovers. It gives me such a good feeling when I come into his class and every kid runs over to me. It makes you realize that you can't take anything for granted because some of these kids just have nothing. For my first two years, I played soccer for UGA. Being on the team was great because it gave me so many friends. The first day of school, I already had 20 people that I knew really well. It was also fun because we got to travel a lot to see other schools. But I hurt my back in September of my junior year and that was it for me. I had to quit. I miss playing soccer, but quitting has given me more opportunities to do other things. The team was very time-consuming. We had practice, games, road trips, and there wasn't much time for other things. For instance, when I was on the team we had to stay in Athens over the summer for practice. After I quit the team, I was able to travel during the summer and do two internships with Johnson Lambert, an accounting firm in Washington, D.C. What I did outside of the classroom definitely affected me inside the classroom. My first two years, I was an accounting major. Then I did an internship in accounting and realized I didn't like it, so I switched to finance. Now I've just accepted a job in Washington, D.C. with the same firm I interned with. Because of my internship experience, I feel like I'm ahead of the game right now. My internships helped me get a job working part-time in Athens at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which is an investment bank. And they also helped me get my job in Washington.
MELISSA BUGBEE Watkinsville Art History *What's next: Master's in art history, then teaching*		hen I came out of high school, I labeled myself as the smart girl. Now I feel a lot more comfortable and free. I get good grades, but that's not what I'm about. I've changed a lot here. I know more about who I am. I'm happy about choosing UGA over the Ivy League schools I could have attended. Educationally, it was strong. And financially, it was an excellent choice because now I'm not worrying about student loans. I can pretty much go wherever I want for grad school. Travel through the Foundation Fellows program has been one of the most important things about being here at UGA. I did the summer study abroad program in Verona, I've been to China, and I've studied German at the Goethe Institute. I don't know why I said I wanted to be a doctor back in '96. I was a biology major for three years before I decided it wasn't for me. I switched my major to art history, but I only had a few biology classes left so I decided to finish that degree too. I decided to switch majors because it wasn't the type of work I wanted to be doing. It wasn't so much that I didn't like science, but I wasn't inspired by it. That was the semester when I also took my first art history class, and I was really excited about it. I started thinking I wanted to do something in liberal arts. I really enjoy art history because I like to write, and you can write more creatively than in science. I plan on attending graduate school in art history. After that, I want to teach. I find it frustrating trying to educate myself on different world issues when it seems like there's so much background and these things have been going on for years. It's a problem of authority, of knowing who to listen to and who to trust. Today, people are really mistrustful of what they hear. I think that makes people frustrated.
OMAR SIMS Athens Speech Comm *What's next: Managing jewelry store at Mall of Georgia*		just moved to Nashville, Tenn., after graduating from UGA in December. I'm training to manage a jewelry store at the new Mall of Georgia. Even though I'm working in the business world, I decided not to major in business because I didn't just want to learn the theories behind it. Instead, I majored in speech communications, which gives you interpersonal skills and teaches you how to relate to people. While I was in school, I was a manager at the Athens Holiday Inn. I worked there for two and a half years. Working while I was in school really put things in perspective for me. It helped me to stay in focus and on track. For instance, a lot of things that I learned in college I was able to practice while working. I also minored in drama at the University. I ended up doing two theater productions, one with the drama department and one with the Black Theatrical Ensemble, where I played Claudius in Hamlet. I also did two student films. The professors I liked the most were those who challenged your ideas. Class was more a discussion than a lecture; a professor would throw out an idea and let you state how you felt about it. That's when I really started to learn, and those were the professors who made a difference to me. I've learned I can do whatever I want, as long as I'm determined. You have to be determined to go to an 8 o'clock class every semester. You have to be determined to write so many papers. When I received my diploma in the mail, that didn't mean anything. It's what I did at UGA that's important. Entrepreneurship—the idea that you can work for yourself and make an unlimited amount of money—is booming right now. I consider myself to be the embodiment of the idea that what you put in is what you get out. I feel I'm one of the leaders of this generation. I have a lot of confidence, and I bring a lot of new ideas to the table. I'm only 21 years old, but I've done so much already. Everywhere I go, people think they know me. I always tell them, "Remember the face and the name, because you'll see me again." I've had a fulfilling college career, but I don't see myself at football games cheering for the Dogs. I'll remember UGA well, but not for that reason. I'm ready for graduation. I'll be sad to leave the people, but I'm ready to move on.