Each week, the Record (using a script in R) randomly selects a student at the College for our One in Two Thousand feature, excluding current Record board members. This week, Vanya Funez ’26 discussed her time at Williams-Mystic, blacksmithing, and healthy sleeping habits. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Emily Zas (EZ): We met through All-Campus Entertainment (ACE), and now you and Emily [Villegas Garcia ’26] are going to be ACE presidents. How are you feeling about that?
Vanya Funez (VF): I’m really excited about it and a little nervous. ACE is such a big club, but I think I have an awesome support system there. I think ACE is just a really nice way of getting the community together. It’s very non-intimidating — we have games and snacks, and you can pull up by yourself or with a group and have fun at our events.
EZ: What’s your favorite ACE event you’ve ever worked on?
VF: Honestly, I think Stressbusters. That was the whole reason I joined ACE — I saw Stressbusters my freshman fall and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is so cute! Who’s running it?” And then I ended up running it. I really liked getting off campus, since I was the one who would drive. There’s something so powerful about picking out the snacks that people are going to eat.
EZ: You were abroad last semester. Tell me about your experience.
VF: That was, I think, the most transformative experience of my entire life. I was at Mystic, and at first it was a little scary since I had never been on a boat before and my knowledge of the ocean was limited. But being there was so cool. I got to interact with so many different people: We went to Antigua and Dominica and got to meet the crew of a ship there. I also went to California and Louisiana and got to meet so many Williams and Mystic alums there, so I did a bit of networking. [Laughs.]
EZ: I’m sure you saw that the College decided to continue the Mystic program after considering its closure. How do you feel about that?
VF: I’m really excited that they’ve decided to continue it. Obviously there will be some changes, but I’m glad that they’re keeping the fundamental parts of the program, like you’ll still get to go down to Louisiana and really see the effects of climate change. I feel like people see it on TV and feel removed, but if you spend a week down there talking to people who spent their lives there, it really changes your perspective. I think it’s beautiful that they’re keeping that aspect.
EZ: Totally. So, you came back to campus this summer. What did you do?
VF: Oh my goodness! I did economics research with Professor [of Economics] Jacobson, and I think it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I helped with her project “Uncommon Econ,” which creates videos for economics courses to highlight the research of minority PhD candidates and professors, hoping to make their work accessible to people who don’t have econ experience. The second part of the project is a control and test semester to test whether the videos have an impact on how students perceive economics and their relationship to it.
EZ: That’s awesome. I know you were a founding member of Central Americans for Empowerment (CAFÉ) too. Tell me about that.
VF: Yeah, it was founded my freshman spring. It was one of many passion projects among seniors that semester. It came out of a desire to highlight the Central American experience — there are so few of us on campus, and even before I came to Williams I barely knew any Central Americans apart from my immediate family. For myself and all of the other people involved in making it, we really wanted to make a space to highlight that experience. We got the Minority Coalition status last spring, and I’m really excited to see what that will entail!
EZ: I hear that you like to go to live tapings of late night shows.
VF: That is very true. I grew up in New Jersey, and I would always go to New York. One day in my senior year of high school I found this website called 1iota which gives out free tickets to talk shows. The first time I did it, I was like, “This is a scam.” But it’s legit, and now everytime I’m home I go. I’ve seen Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Trevor Noah, Drew Barrymore, Kelly Clarkson, and Stephen Colbert, and I’ve also been to movie and TV show premieres.
EZ: Who’s your favorite late-night host?
VF: Oh, that’s tricky. I’m gonna go with Seth Meyers. He’s not my favorite one to watch on TV, but I’ve been to two tapings of his shows, and every time he has a break when filming he’ll walk up to the audience and take questions and chat with us.
EZ: I also heard a crazy rumor that you know how to blacksmith.
VF: I do! If you go to Mystic, you get to take a “skills” class at the Mystic Museum Seaport. I don’t know what it was about blacksmithing, but it seemed so cool to me. Fun fact: There’s no need for all the sparks. You just do that for dramatic effect. We would do that for little kids who came in. But yeah, that was a highlight for me.
EZ: Wow. Am I right that you also want to join club rugby this year?
VF: Yeah, I signed up. I remember freshman year I thought it was really cool, but I chickened out because the idea of getting concussed was terrifying. But I don’t know, I think because Mystic forced me to try so many new things, I knew that when I got back to campus I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone. I’m almost ready to start. We’ll see how it goes.
EZ: I was told to ask you about your sleeping habits.
VF: This is actually kind of interesting. A healthy bedtime in my opinion is that you are either waking up in seven and a half hours or nine hours, no in-between. I’m into this website called Sleepytime that tells you when to go to bed and wake up for the best sleep cycle.
EZ: Would you say that it works?
VF: I think it does. I don’t wake up groggy or anything. I’ve put my friends onto it.
EZ: Finally, what is your favorite establishment on Spring Street?
VF: Hmm. Images Cinema. I would have said Smoothie Spot, but that closed. I’ve been a volunteer at Images since freshman fall, and it’s my happy place. I love to chat with people there, and there’s always the perk that if you volunteer you get free tickets and snacks. So, Images hands down.
