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Vanessa Verdoodt, a graduating world arts and cultures student, came to UCLA from Belgium, where

After June 18th, many new Bruin alumni might spend the summer starting their first jobs, working on graduate school applications, or awkwardly making the transition into life back at home. Right now, Vanessa Verdoodt’s primary post-graduation concern is deciding on the most efficient way to go from dancing in Senegal to teaching conflict resolution in Maine.

For Verdoodt, a graduating world arts and cultures student, the path leading to and from college has always been an unconventional one. While most would-be Bruins spend high school choosing activities to attract colleges, at 14, college was the last thing on Verdoodt’s mind.

“Before I moved here, I was really a bad kid. For me, to graduate from UCLA is a major thing because I would have never thought I would go to school,” she said.

Verdoodt grew up in Belgium, where graffiti writing introduced her to dance.

“I started break dancing. I only knew street dances before I moved to the States,” Verdoodt said. “I was a street kid, I was a hustler, and I moved here on street money.”

Dancing became the only thing that mattered to Verdoodt. When Poppin Taco, one of Michael Jackson’s choreographers, came to Belgium, he encouraged her interest in hip hop culture and recommended she move to Los Angeles. For three years, Verdoodt was driven by the vision of Los Angeles, and at 17, she finally saved enough money to come to the United States.

“I was 17 when I moved here by myself, and I just started working hard and tried to find any opportunity I could to keep working,” she said.

Verdoodt joined a dance company but still had no interest in school – until she needed to renew her visa. To keep it, she enrolled at Santa Monica College while avidly dancing in companies, music videos and commercials. Two UCLA WAC students in Verdoodt’s company recommended that she apply for the program. She still did not want to go to school, but they continued to encourage her until she applied. Ironically, the WAC department rejected Verdoodt, and it was only then that she realized how much she wanted to go to UCLA.

“I appealed because that was the only thing I wanted to study. I really wanted to go, and they finally accepted me,” Verdoodt said.

Soon the formerly street-dancing, academia-wary student became the darling of the WAC department, as she applied the same unrelenting focus to school as she did to moving to Los Angeles.

At UCLA, Verdoodt balances teaching at Santa Monica High School, founding her own dance company, and working with multiple youth programs such as Zulu Nation and Afrika Bambataa. Verdoodt genuinely lights up when discussing her activities and passions. However, she does admit her desire to do everything can be a little overwhelming.

“When I got here, anything that happened I would just take it in, and never say no,” she said, laughing. “I am the busiest person in WAC. My life is out of control. When I am in class, I am in vacation!”

Verdoot’s life shows no signs of slowing down in the near future. The Dean of the School of Arts and Architecture awarded her with the school’s only undergraduate scholarship, and she hopes to go on tour in California with her dance company.

After successfully proposing a trip to Senegal to WAC professors Al Roberts and David Gere, Verdoodt and other WAC students will be dancing there this summer. Soon afterward, she will jet back to the States to work at a conflict resolution workshop program for children from Palestine and Israel.

“Everything I do has connections,” Verdoodt said. “I love everything I do and I am going to continue doing it.”

When Verdoodt speaks about how much she values her education, it is difficult to imagine her as the “bad street kid” she describes. The bold, focused, multi-layered dancer is bursting with goals and bolstered by confidence from a life of seeing her dreams come to fruition.

“I am not fearless, but almost, and I trust everything out there. I trust what (happens) is meant to happen, and if you want to do it, you can,” she said.