by Courtney Cleveland

features editor

Noah Barbieri is a junior triple major in philosophy, economics and mathematics. On top of that, he currently serves as SBA President and a member of Millsaps’ mock trial.

The Purple and White: What made you come to Millsaps?

Noah Barbieri: It was a long process. I had planned on going to Ole Miss all throughout high school, and then I got the dream scholarship to Ole Miss… Then I kind of started thinking about where I belonged. I’ve always wanted to be successful so I felt like where I had the greatest chance of being successful was at Millsaps because of the size [of the school], size of the classes and how our faculty has those connections. I knew I could do multiple things, as well. I hate just doing one thing all the time. I knew I’d be able to study a lot of different things and be involved in different activities. If I went to a different school, there’s no way I could do SBA and mock trial. I’ve also written a couple of articles for The Purple and White.

P&W: What’s your favorite part of campus?

NB: The Bowl is really generic, I think. I would say the living room because it’s where everyone gets together, and it’s where we have all of our events. There’s always people in here meeting new people and interacting. That’s pretty generic too, but it’s the truth.

P&W: And your favorite memory on campus?

NB: Oh man, that’s hard. It was probably Welcome Weekend freshman year. It seems like an annoying thing when you’re going through it and you’re like, ‘Why do I need this? I don’t need to make friends. I can be popular.’ Everyone I’m friends with now, I met that week—people in my class and upperclassmen, as well.

P&W: Do you remember the last book you read?

NB: It’s been since the summer. I think it was Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. She writes

Southern gothic literature, and she was here on campus and she’s given a couple of talks.

P&W: You were recently elected as SBA President. How did that make you feel?

NB: Incredible. I’ve been working towards it and trying to make connections since I was a freshman. It really has been a goal, and it’s an honor to get to represent great people all the time. Because they changed the terms of office, it’s crazy that I’m going to be [president] for a year and a half, until the year I graduate. I don’t think there’s any way I’m going to burn out either.

P&W: What is your strongest personal quality?

NB: Drive. Drive to do multiple different things. Like I said, I’m super glad I came to Millsaps because if I was only allowed to do one academic study or allowed to be in one activity, it would’ve driven me crazy. That’s a great thing about Millsaps that a lot of people miss out on. We’re all super busy, but you get a lot of opportunities to do different things.

P&W: If you could travel anywhere, where would you go and why?

NB: I think I would go to maybe somewhere in East Asia that’s like less traveled, so I could see the culture and things. I’ve never gotten to go to an area where the culture is really different from mine. Anywhere I’ve traveled to looks just like the U.S. with slightly different accents and things like that.

P&W: What’s something embarrassing/funny that your family would say about you?

NB: Man, that’s a good one. I’ve always been an attention hog since I was a little kid. If you watch old home videos of me, I’m just dancing in front of the camera the whole time. I think some of that’s kind of stayed on.

P&W:  What’s the last thing you did for fun?

NB: I watched this show on extreme vacation homes yesterday on Netflix.

P&W: Have you started preparing for finals?

NB: Yeah. Oh yeah. I always try to start at least two weeks out.

P&W: Whoa, that’s a lot better than me.

NB: It’s just your first set. It gets harder. You’ll figure it out, but it’s not going to hurt you if you study right before. It’s kind of stressful though. I like to be done studying everyday by seven o’clock.

P&W: How are you going to spend your holiday break?

NB: Two things. I’m going to go to NY for a week, and just prepare for next semester—pre-studying.

The Purple and White would like to thank Noah for answering these questions! If you or someone you know would like to be featured in the next “Meet the Millsapian” article, you can email me at clevecd@millsaps.edu.