Featured VMAG

In predicting when and how America’s financial collapse would occur, my focus was on the growing importance of the housing sector, the actions of our government, and the response of the private sector. Read More

The iconic Norman Rockwell painting of a family doctor checking the heart of a young patient’s doll may seem quaint, but it’s far from old-fashioned. Read More

On a chilly Friday night last November, the area underneath the wide expanse of the Jefferson Street Bridge in downtown Nashville became a scene of rare opportunity for the city’s homeless. Read More

In the days before bank failures, stock-market tumbles and worldwide economic malaise, a college diploma—especially one from a top university like Vanderbilt—was a one-way ticket to financial security. These days, however, graduates are faced with less-than-certain job prospects. America’s 50 million Millennials represent the most educated generation ever, but they… Read More

Cornelius Vanderbilt was a hard man. Unsentimental, he earned a national reputation for taking care of himself. When the Civil War began, no one imagined he would turn out to be a selfless patriot. Read More

Libraries can be intimidating places. The young James Baldwin thought so. Read More

Divinity grads aim to compensate for the chaos in contemporary society. Read More

Freak accidents sever limbs. Tumors disfigure faces. And reconstructive plastic surgeons team up for their toughest challenges. Read More

Out of the shadows of the Vanderbilt constellation has emerged a glittering star. During the past decade Peabody College of education and human development has been quietly elevating its national reputation as one of the most—if not the most—respected schools of education in the country. For the past two years, U.S. News… Read More

Last year more than 700 Vanderbilt students received part of their education outside the United States, choosing from more than 100 Vanderbilt study abroad programs. During the past decade Vanderbilt has significantly increased resources to make international study accessible to more students. From nearly 300 entries submitted to the Global… Read More

One hundred million dollars in gifts for scholarships. That’s the ambitious goal of Opportunity Vanderbilt, the university’s commitment to replace need-based undergraduate student loans with grants and scholarships. The good news: To date, Vanderbilt has raised $81 million in gifts for scholarship endowment. The not-so-good news: Vanderbilt’s… Read More

As a Republican leader during a time when partisanship rocks the nation’s Capitol, Lamar Alexander walks a thin line. Read More

Vanderbilt takes on the childhood obesity epidemic, one family at a time. Read More

The mantra for 21st-century Greek organizations: Work hard, play hard, be smart, be safe, be responsible. Read More

Tisha Holloway was exhausted. She had been laboring in a North Carolina hospital for almost 26 hours to give birth to her first child, but the baby just wouldn’t come. “I tried to do everything right during my pregnancy,” the 27-year-old woman says. “I ate right, exercised, kept my… Read More

It is a tenet of the self-help faith: Follow your passion, and it will lead you down the road to professional success, personal fulfillment and financial reward. The alumni profiled in this issue turn this self-help cliché on its head. They have followed their passions, yes, but down an alternate… Read More

(Photo: Herb Peck) “I have sometimes said that during the half dozen or so years from 1967 to 1973, I never relaxed once,” Vanderbilt’s fifth chancellor, Alexander Heard, once remarked. “That’s not technically true, of course, but I was constantly aware of the local and national matters that affected Vanderbilt’s… Read More

Jeanne Moses didn’t have a history of cancer in her family. She didn’t have symptoms—just backache and a bit of weight loss. Nothing unusual for a 45-year-old mother working two jobs. So she was stunned when her doctor delivered the news: Jeanne Moses—technical writer, theatrical costumer, daughter of the director,… Read More

Rodes Hart (left) and Orrin Ingram Rodes Hart and Orrin Ingram believe in Vanderbilt. As alumni, trustees, philanthropists and visionaries, they reflect on the opportunities—and challenges—of eliminating need-based loans and increasing scholarship endowment. Rodes Hart, who graduated from the College of Arts and Science in 1954 and now… Read More

The Vanderbilt Aid Society elected Elizabeth Boddie Elliston (above) as its first president and Mary Barbour Wallace (left) as its first secretary/treasurer. The “simple fare” served at their organizational meeting included chicken salad, scalloped oysters, beaten biscuits, sandwiches, individual ices and cakes, almonds, and pink and white mints. It began… Read More