Between Band Practices: Emelia Delaporte

For the fifth blog in this series, Marketing and Communications Officer Emelia Delaporte reflects on her time at Virginia Tech, her involvement in student organizations, and what it means to be a Marching Virginian.  

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Photo courtesy of Emelia Delaporte

How long have you been in the MVs and what is your role? 

This will be my fourth season with the MVs, as well as my fourth year as an undergraduate. My role during this past season has been the Marketing and Communications Officer, and I will be reprising that this season. In addition to that, I have been a member of the piccolo section my entire time here. 

What’s your degree program and how far along in it are you? I have been pursuing dual degrees, so that means instead of doing a double major, it's so many credits that they hand you two separate diplomas. I'm pursuing professional and technical writing, which is a major under the English department, and multimedia journalism, which falls under the School of Communication. In addition to those two programs, I've also been pursuing double minors in natural resources recreation and biodiversity conservation, both of which are housed in the College of Natural Resources and Environment.  

Photo courtesy of Emelia Delaporte

What extracurriculars outside of the MVs did you engage in? 

I started out freshman year with the Wildlife Society, the Bird Club, the National Deer Association, the Outdoor Club, the Collegiate Times, and Silhouette Literary and Art Magazine. I did Panhellenic for a semester and a summer. I've tried to narrow it down a bit since then. My sophomore year, I became an assistant section editor for the Lifestyles column the Collegiate Times — that was my main organizational focus outside of the MVs.  My junior year, I ended up becoming the social media chair for the National Deer Association, lifestyles section editor for The Collegiate Times, and editor-in-chief of the Silhouette. This coming year, I'll be involved with the CT, the Silhouette, the Wildlife Society, the Bird Club, and WUVT, which is our student radio station. I also have done a lot of volunteer student research. 

Photo courtesy of Emelia Delaporte (handled with permits)

Earlier, you mentioned student research. What have you been investigating? 

Since my freshman year, I've been involved with the Wildlife Habitat and Population analysis lab, fondly known as WHAPA. With them, I've been doing camera trapping data entry since my freshman year, going through a bunch of pictures from cameras in Belize and helping folks identify jaguars and stuff like that. I was also briefly involved with a number of other projects, some of them centering around salamanders, birds, and trees. And then this past year, I've been involved with the Dayer Human Dimensions Lab. So in the spring, I was working on a shorebird disturbance project, and that's who I'm working with this summer. I'll also be working with them again in the fall. 

How would you say the MVs impacted your time at Virginia Tech? 

The MVs have always been something that was super special to me. The MVs gave me my friends for at least my freshman fall before I really got my legs under myself and was able to start branching out a little bit more into the university, and then they've been a home space to come back to every fall. It's definitely been my greatest social foundation while I've been in college. 

How would you say being in another organization outside of the MVs has benefited you? 

It’s taught me a lot about prioritization. There have been a lot of things that I would have loved to have done, but I've had to be a practice instead, like my involvement with Scouts BSA and the Order of the Arrow has kind of taken a backseat for the past couple of years because I've needed to be at practice. It's instilled more confidence in me that those organizations still want to be there for me when I have the time to be a part of them. It can be really gratifying to have to split your time between things like that, because it teaches you that those folks who you aren't able to be there with all the time actually care about you enough to say that, you're taking time away and that it’s okay. So it's taught me a lot about that, and just in general, it's given me a lot of time management skills.  

Photo courtesy of Emelia Delaporte

What advice do you have for folks who are new to the MVs? 

Don't feel left out because you're doing one thing when there's something else you could be doing. I remember my freshman year, I was so focused on, “oh my gosh, I can't be with my residence hall right now, like these people are all going to make friends, and I'm at practice. What am I going to do?” I ended up not being friends with them anyways, and that was probably for the better. So do the best you can to branch out and meet new people, but also recognize that if you can't be somewhere, it's not the end of the world. We all get busy.  Setting yourself up in the fall with other clubs and things to keep yourself busy when the spring comes has been really essential, at least for my well-being and my organization during the school year.

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Emelia is from Tampa, Florida and worked this summer as a social science research assistant.

Between Band Practices: Jaden Catalfamo

The first blog in this series, featuring trumpet rank captain Sarah Murray, showed that it’s possible to fully commit yourself to another organization – like VT Rec Sports – alongside the Marching Virginians. This week, we have an interview from piccolo rank captain Jaden Catalfamo, who shows that your time can be split even further, with just as much success. Let’s see what wisdom she has to share!

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Photo courtesy of Jaden Catalfamo

How long have you been in the MVs and what is your role?

This is going into my fourth season but this upcoming year will be my second year being a rank captain for the piccolo section.

What’s your degree program? How far into it are you?

So currently, I am pursuing a bachelor’s of science in neuroscience but my specific major is clinical neuroscience. I’m pretty much almost done. Technically I only have one semester left, it’s mostly prereqs that are left but everything else is just pharmacy school things. Spring semester [is] when I’ll be taking the remainder of my pharmacy school prerequisites, because some of them don’t necessarily line up with my degree program.

Is there a pre-pharmacy track you were able to enter into?

I kind of had to figure it out myself. I went onto multiple colleges’s websites and just looked at each prerequisite that they had. I had to create my own spreadsheet for what courses they required because some colleges are completely different. So that was pretty much all up to me.

Photo courtesy of Jaden Catalfamo

If you do engage in any extracurriculars outside of the MVs, what are they?

I am mostly involved in Hokie Ambassadors – those are the people who give those daily campus tours that you’ll see go around every day. Wthin that I am a mentor, so whenever the new training classes come around I usually mentor 2-3 different new guides. [I] help guide them throught the training process so they can give their own tours. Outside of that, I am also in Alpha Chi Sigma, which is a professional chemistry fraternity. Basically the whole point of this is to help develop my professionalism and to help get me ready for anything I want to do within the sciences, but it’s also a way for me to share my passion with other people who just so happen to like chemistry just as much as I do.

How would you say the MVs has impacted your time at Tech?

The biggest impact they’ve made on me I would say are the friendships, I’ve met all my best friends pretty much in the MVs. It’s created a sense of family… going to college, I was very much in my own little circle, but then I met the pix and whoever else is in band. It’s definitely deepened my sense of security when it comes to going to school. That’s something I’ll always be grateful for with the MVs.

Would you say that being in another organization outside of the MVs has benefited you? If so, how?

Photo courtesy of Jaden Catalfamo

Most definitely Hokie Ambassadors – becoming a mentor, I would say, strengthened the leadership qualities that I [can] work on in the MVs. It really put things into perspective for me, how I could actually apply the things that happened with that organization into the MVs. As for Alpha Chi Sigma, I would say, for me the big part of it was just trying to advocate for my littles. You have to advocate for other people in the MVs too sometimes because we’re one big family, we’re one big support system. Every single organization I’ve been in has contributed in some sort of way with the MVs.

How do you manage your time?

If I can get dates well ahead of time, then it’s easier for me to at least try and schedule whether I have to meet with mentees, whether I just want to spend some time with friends… I would say just – literally my Google Calendar has become my best friend for that. It’s always important to set time aside just for yourself and it took awhile for me to truly grasp that. I figured it, now, but  it took some time.

What advice do you have for new students both within and outside the MVs?

Honestly, don’t be afraid to branch out. With the MVs, it may feel very overwhelming, especially with how much time we spend at rehearsal, preparing for games… it can be a little overwhelming at first but if you have other passions that you want to pursue, then I highly suggest doing so, especially if you want to use your time in college wisely and want to enjoy it to the absolute fullest. I would recommend starting early – going to Gobblerfest, find what organizations you might want to join and just go from there, because you never know. There’s always going to be something for you, whether it’s the MVs or not.

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Jaden is from Virginia Beach, Virginia.