Posted by Ryan Bowen on Thursday, April 19, 2018 in Celebration of Learning, Commentary, Events, Student Projects, Students as Producers.

Senior mechanical engineering student Elizabeth Lee is happy to have tapped back into her drawing and arts roots. Throughout college, she claims she stuck more to her science, math, and engineering interests, but now in her senior year, she’s returning to an old pastime: drawing.

Elizabeth’s project, Existing Quietly, Living Loudly is a web comic series that shares her story as an Asian-American student at Vanderbilt University. She describes how her identity has been a significant lens through which she interacts and interprets the world around her. Elizabeth says that since she understands both Korean and American culture, she has a unique perspective that she wants to share through her project.

Engineering has kept her busy, but when she was given the opportunity to work on this project in her Asian American Literature course, she was happy to get back to the drawing board (literally). She said that she was excited to share her project at the Celebration of Learning, stating that this web comic series was the first time she had done digital art on a tablet.

“My Asian-American identity is something that is a big part of my life. A lot of these stories it’s hard to go and tell someone about instances that happen. What better way to share some of my stories than through drawing.”

Student(s): Elizabeth Lee
Project: Existing Quietly, Living Loudly
Course: ENGL 3662: Asian American Literature
Faculty Sponsor: Haerin Shin, Ph.D.; English