USD Magazine, Fall 2004

Siblings: None.

rescued from rhe pound.

Major: Education.

Residence hall: Missions B.

he daughter of a dog groomer - who, because of her mother's soft heart, shared her home with eight dogs - Kendra Hoffman-Curry is thrilled char she didn't have to bring her lint brush to USO. Ir's a funny thought char crossed her mind as she unpacked in her new residence hall. Once her boxes had been emptied, she saw how different her side of the room looked from her roommate's. "Her stuff is white and orderly, and my stuff is very colorful - rie-dye blankets and bright pink pillows," Hoffman-Curry says. "Plus, I'm a compulsive clutter queen and, of course, I brought ir all. Just like at home." One of the reasons Hoffman-Curry chose USO is because it's small. Bur on rhe first day of school, when it rook her 20 minutes to walk from her residence hall to her 7 a.m. physics class on the west end of campus, she realized just how big the campus is. She'll get used to the distance and the morning schedule. Ir helps that she's no stranger to rising early - her summer job started at 6:50 a.m. So while she's not dropping her crack-of-dawn class, she might replace another class with something a little lighter. "I rend to rake on too much and risk overwhelming myself," Hoffman-Curry says. "In high school, I was a. student body secretary and involved in the anti-defamation league, which reaches high-schoolers about the dangers of discrimination." She also worked part time, was the executive producer for a weekly television program at her school and traveled to 14 countries, including nine while she was a student ambassador in the People to People program, which sends students overseas to learn about ocher countries while representing their own. In part because of her own amazing experiences in high school, Hoffman-Curry plans to reach at that level. "High school is an important rime in life," she says. "Ir can make you or break you. I've had amazing teachers who changed my life, and I hope I can be char reacher for other students someday." +

Fa ll courses: Physics,

World Religions, Intro to Logic,

English Literature in Violent

T imes, Fitness Hip Hop.

Guilty pleasure: Shopping.

Can't live without:

"My friends, my mom, my

dog and people. I couldn't

ever live without !ors of

people around."

One-liner: "In the end,

everything will be OK- and

if it's nor OK, it's nor the end."

Say what? "This was a

quote on my best friend's

refrigerator, and I've been

living by it for the last

fo ur years."