Immersion

Immersion Is… an opportunity for undergraduate students to pursue their passions and interests through experiential learning. Each student takes a project from proposal to completion in and beyond the classroom with the guidance of a Vanderbilt faculty member. CAL students have completed Immersion projects on topics such as sports in Nashville, the rhythms of Music City, gentrification and social justice, food culture, environmental advocacy, and much more.

NOTE: CAL majors will fulfill their Immersion requirement in the course of completing their major. You will have several opportunities to count CAL experiences toward Immersion. For more information, contact Paul Stob, director of CAL, or Gabriel Torres Colón, director of undergraduate studies.

Immersion Stories

Anthony Cesario BA’23

Major: American Studies, with a Music & History concentration

“My immersion project allowed me to place my own personal experiences in the context of something that was bigger than myself. It allowed me to get creative, to dive deeper into something I was passionate about and that aligns with my intended career path, while still applying easily to my major (thanks to the flexibility of American Studies).”

For his immersion project, Anthony combined his experience having worked a music blogging internship with academic research about the power of blogging in the ever-evolving music industry. He found data surrounding the importance of branding, target audiences, and more for social media-based businesses, and he connected his research with his own experience in music culture.