Admissions Counselor
(715) 232-2276 • perezm@uwstout.edu • AIM: UWStoutMelissa
Of all of the books you were assigned to read when you were in school, what are your favorites? For some reason, To Kill a Mockingbird still resonates with me (even though I have the worst memory!), and it was probably 15 years ago when we read it in high school. In college, I don’t really remember reading anything except for textbooks. I read Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain a while back (which I loved). Now I mostly just read cookbooks, celeb gossip magazines, and the Sunday newspaper cover to cover.
If you could have a $10,000 shopping spree to one store, which store would it be and how long would it take you to spend the $10,000? I would go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and do a total remodel on my kitchen and make it totally gourmet. Wait, I don’t think $10,000 is enough to do what I would want to do. In that case, I’d go to a department store like Macy’s, Nordstrom’s, or Bloomingdales and buy handbags and shoes that are totally unnecessary.
What place in the U.S. would you most like to visit? Why? I have never been out east. I would love to visit New York City and Boston, but then I’d also like to see the more rural areas of New York and Vermont. I’d also like to visit the Hamptons to see the beaches on the Atlantic.
Desk: messy or organized? Completely messy. But everything is in a stack, and I know where everything is. If it’s not on my desk and it’s put away, I think it’s done.
If you could give the world one piece of advice, what would it be? Simmer down now. No one seems to get anywhere when they are all fired up so let’s just take a collective breath.
What would someone find in your refrigerator right now? Jam I just made with berries from the farmers market, chicken soup with basil and thyme and way to many condiments.
If you were a salad, what kind of dressing would you have? Let’s clarify. If I were a mixed greens salad, I’d want to have balsamic vinaigrette. If I was a classic iceberg lettuce salad, french and ranch on the side please.
Which super power do you like to have and why? A magic cleaning wand. I’d wave it and the house would be cleaned, the dishes would be done, the clothes would be washed and put away…I could go on and on.
Which is the best vacation you’ve ever had in your life? It was my junior year of college and I was studying abroad in Venezuela. A group of us decided to go on a beach trip. We left Merida (in the Andes Mountains) and traveled by coach bus twelve hours to get to Maracay where we then mounted an old school bus that took us on a windy, mountain pass with narrow roads and very sharp curves. We stayed in this beach town of Choroni for one night, and then took a boat to nearby beaches on the coast. We had no plans, no particular beach in mind, we had tents on our back and we went wherever Venezuelans recommended we go. I remember arriving in a beach town one of the days, and there weren’t any restaurants for us to eat at, so a woman opened up her home to us and made us arepas (corn cakes stuffed with cheese or meat).