With their final seasons as Judges cut short, we honor the members of the Class of 2021 with a series of Senior Spotlights.
Click for more Class of 2021 Senior Spotlights
Harper Pollio-Barbee, Cross Country and Track
GET TO KNOW HARPER
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Major/Minor: Linguistics / Architectural Studies
Favorite part about competing: In the few times I was able to race, I really enjoyed the level of competition. Brandeis is in the UAA, so rolling up to the indoor conference meet and getting absolutely WAXED in the mile gave me some good perspective on how tough conference and D3 competition can be and really lit a fire under me.
Favorite athletic moment: My first ever mile in the stripes. It was at the Reggie Lewis center, and I ended up running a 7 second PR in my very first mile at Brandeis.
Favorite class at Brandeis: Approaches to Architecture and the City; it was the first class that really "clicked" intuitively. I hadn't really been able to ask deeper questions about the material in my classes before, so to be able to do that was kind of a revelation.
The thing that attracted me most to Brandeis: The people and the ~*~vibes~*~. Brandeis seemed really eclectic, and the people here seemed to care much more about learning than grades, which I really appreciated.
Favorite place on campus outside of Gosman: Sherman dining hall. The company is phenomenal.
Favorite summer opportunity: Last summer, I worked at Adobe doing machine learning annotation for a super-secret project. It was fun and a lot more engaging than the previous annotation I had done for a phonetics lab the previous summer.
Thing I'll miss most about Brandeis: Team dinners. Nothing quite beats eating with the family you chose.
Outside of my sport, my favorite thing to do at Brandeis: Big Trophy Trivia at the Stein (at 9)! Honestly, a bunch of us take it so seriously it's basically a second sport, but that's neither here nor there. The format is a little bit different this year (what with social distancing), so the track team has been doing Thursday Trivia instead, and I scheduled my off days at my job so that I would always be able to attend trivia.
Favorite TV Show: Letterkenny
Favorite Song: Country Roads by John Denver
Favorite pro team: The 76ers. I'm from Philly, and I appreciate the beauty of the game of basketball.
Most Memorable Professional Sports moment: I met Marcus Smart while working at the front desk of Gosman a couple times.
Favorite Meal: Ribs
Harper Pollio-Barbee is a 2017 graduate of Penn Charter School.
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