Meet Eddy Torgas, an incoming Brown dorm resident from Miami, Florida. This interview is part of a summer blog series profiling one Class of 2018 member from each of the 13 East Campus dorms. Look out for the rest of the blogs on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays leading up to Orientation Week.
Major: Double major in economics with finance concentration and computer science.
Pre-orientation: None. "My birthday is Aug. 17 and I wanted to spend my birthday with friends and family."
Summer plans: "I've been participating at an internship at an accounting firm, one of the largest in the country. Also teaching myself some computer programming and working on starting my own business."
What is the business he's starting: "It's an academic planning and consulting service — I was going through high school and I did what I liked but [my friend and I] were worried about how much more difficult it was going to become to get into colleges around the world and in the U.S. We partnered up to see if we can help other students and from an early age guide them so they can do what they like and set them up in the best way possible."
Favorite type of weather: "I'm a swimmer so my favorite weather is sunny except for right before swim practice. When swim practice is about to start, the stormier, the better."
Favorite book or literary work: "To Kill a Mockingbird." "I wanted to be an attorney for most of my life and I was starting to believe lawyers can be the bad guy. Atticus Finch made my eighth grade self realize that I could be the good guy or the bad guy and I wasn't going to let the profession I chose define me or change me."
Spirit animal: Dog. "I've got a lovely dog who runs and make everyone in the house happy whenever he can. He's naturally curious and interesting and I think that sums me up as well."
Guilty pleasure: Dulce de leche. "It’s my addiction. It’s my Nutella."
Impression from first visit to Duke: "I loved it when i visited. I vividly remember that it was autumn and I had never really seen the fall. In Miami the leaves don't change. We have live green leaves and dead brown leaves. At Duke I saw a single tree that had green, brown, orange and yellow."
What he will add to the Brown community: "I just want to be a genuine person. I want to try to be the guy people are comfortable coming to for a favor… the kind of person that people are comfortable with in any situation and people like to work with so I can learn as much from the people around me as they can learn from me."
Things he's excited to try out at Duke: "Something I've been extremely excited for ever since i visited Duke is the virtual reality chamber and even since I've been playing with ideas in my mind, all the different things a person could see and do with something like that. I've been dying to take it for a spin."
What he most nervous about at Duke: "I’m worried I'll spread myself too thin, which is a worry im sure many other people will have. I have a hard time saying 'no' to anything that sounds interesting."
If he could be famous for one thing, what it would be: "It would be cool to be president of the United States… The Duke community wouldn't have to talk about Nixon anymore."
Essential dorm decorating item: "A fridge. Food is a huge part of my life."
Any last thoughts: "I can't wait for Aug. 19. It's the first day of the rest of our life. I’m looking forward to meeting everybody at Brown and everybody at Duke and everybody in the class of 2018. We’re going to be competing because we want to be the best in our fields, but at the end of the day we’re a community and I hope I can make everyone feel that community."
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