Rashida is just one bubble of energy. She wants to be a lawyer; no, an investment banker; no, a baker! And, boy, is she “impressive!” She’s a CSS major, she dances, plays water polo, is training for a triathlon, and has a five-year plan. Oh, and her cheesecake rivals Junior’s.

Justin: Are you really a CSS/Dance major?

Rashida: No. I wanted to double in dance or AFAM last year, but I didn’t after being called crazy and not getting into two classes that I need. I’m just CSS, but I’m a ballerina on the inside. I’m going to be in spring dance, and I’m doing Burlesque, and I’m doing the fashion show to express my creativity.

Emily: Did you dance when you were younger?

R: 10 years! Tap and ballet. I gave up on the dream of dance school. I’m not going to be a ballerina, because if I wanted to, it’s like: “You have to go to Julliard. Otherwise, you suck,” and I knew I wouldn’t make it.

J: You could work on a cruise ship.

R: Yeah, with my CSS major. “I went to Wesleyan and learned about Rousseau.” [Tap, tap, tap].

J: You’re also on the water polo team. When does that start?

R: It’s now. The thing is that I’m contemplating being on the team, because I’m training for a triathlon with Zena Falk ’09. But I hadn’t worked out for seven months until last month, so it’s been tough. Anyway, water polo’s fun. The real season’s in April. I’m the goalie, but in our last tournament our captain broke her finger, and we had just enough people playing, so I had to play in the field and in the goal. It was amazing! The Dartmouth coach was like, “Oh, I thought you were just a goalie,” and I was like, “I’m all over the place, man!”

J: How is water polo played?

R: It’s a mixture of soccer, basketball, and football, I guess. In water. You have two goals, and your aim is to get the ball in the goal, but the girls are very violent. But I’m an evil person, so I just elbow girls in the eye. I’m notorious.

E: Do people get into fights a lot?

R: I believe that if you’re going to hit the goalie, you deserve to be hurt. Girls will come up and elbow me, and I just punch them. The funniest thing was last year when we played Yale. I accidentally elbowed a girl in the eye, and she let out the largest scream, and they stopped the game. The refs were wondering what happened, and my coaches just laughed, because they know I hit her. I just said, “I don’t know what happened,” because I lost my contacts in the middle of the game, so all I could see were colors.

J: What made you decide to train for a triathlon?

R: This summer Zena Falk and I randomly decided to do it. It’s a half a mile swim, a 10 mile bike, and a 5K. We’re doing the one in Webster, Massachusetts in July.

E: Do you have a coach?

R: We’re training independently.

J: What did you do this past summer?

R: I worked at NYU Law trying to brownnose my way into a better future, and I worked at a law firm. I worked with the financial department. Basically, you need to be a law professor, because that’s the best paying job. You get a six-figure salary, your housing paid for, you get to go out on expensive meals. They pay for everything. They pay for your kids to go to college!

E: Do you still want to go to law school?

R: I want to get a fellowship and then go. But the thing is: law’s not really the dream. I want to open a bakery, but you need money to do that. Thus I want to be a lawyer. I figured out that investment banking isn’t for me even though I’m going to New York for an investment banking internship. Don’t ask. I just want to make mad dough and in 10 years go and do my bakery thing.

J: What do you like to bake? I really like baking too.

R: I like baking everything, because I like eating everything that I make, but I like my cheesecakes the best, because they taste just like Junior’s. I eat the whole thing myself. The key is heavy whipping cream.

E: Do you want to go to culinary school?

R: I’m still deciding. I should if I’m going to open up a business, but I can’t decide if I want to do a mail-order thing or a real bakery. I know that in five years I want to enter the Ultimate Cookie Competition. You win $125,000. It’s four rounds. You make three specific cookies, and then you make your own special cookie. That’s what I have to learn in the next five years.

E: So you have a five-year plan!

R: My parents think I’m crazy. I had a 10-year plan to be an investment banker, sell my soul, and then open the bakery. But then I found out about the IB world from the Goldman Sachs people.

J: Where are you from?

R: Connecticut. West Haven. It’s west of New Haven. But I claim Brooklyn all the time, because I was born there and go there a lot, and I’ve got street cred.

J: What gives you street cred?

R: At Wesleyan I act a little crazy, and no one ever puts me in check, because who’s really going to put me in check? But when I was in Brooklyn all summer I said crazy things and did crazy stuff and I didn’t get stabbed.

J: So cred is more of a survival thing? Come back in one piece, and you’ve got cred?

R: Yeah.

J: What should everyone know about you?

R: I have all these great ideas including bringing MTV to our campus to do a television show in the Ride. I wrote a Wespeak about business cards, and it was funny, but I was serious. I actually have a new idea for the springtime. Just wait for the next Wespeak. I want to do a lot of shakin’ before the new president comes, who I hear is Bill Clinton.

J: Do you have a motto or mantra?

R: Be impressive.