On the first day of his sophomore year, Cayden Ginting, an economics major at Columbia College, skipped all of his classes. Instead of walking down College Walk to lecture halls, he stepped onto a very different runway, modeling the LaTouché Spring Summer 2025 collection at New York Fashion Week.

On the day of my scheduled interview with Jason Friesen, Trek Medics International founder and CEO, I was suffering from a 100-degree fever and a case of food poisoning. Nonetheless, with beads of sweat dripping down my pale face, I launched the Zoom meeting, knowing a similar opportunity for a virtual face-to-face conversation wouldn’t arise any time soon.

All summer, you’ve been meticulously typing up notes on Homer’s Iliad, attempting to feed your insatiable hunger for control. Thousands of miles away from the Morningside campus, you have no guarantee that you’ll meet your college soulmate, fit all your favorite sweaters into the tiny dorm room, or even learn how to stomach American cuisine. But one thing is for sure: You are going to ace Literature Humanities.