By Nicole Kohut Foregoing her chair in order to sit on the floor, accumulating balls of carpet fuzz, Melody Tai tells me she has been “ultracompetitive from the start…a definitive ‘comp’ kid.” Competitions are a beast of their own. Categorized by mass amounts of sequins, glitter, and drama, the competition scene seems like the last place for Melody, who spends her free time playing with her dog and teaching young kids how to play the harp. But with an ex-acrobat for a father

By Sam Needleman On a balmy evening back in December, I carved an interlude in my preparations for the Lit Hum exam and trekked to East Campus, leaving my Diet Coke and half-eaten bag of Goldfish behind in John Jay. Across Amsterdam Avenue, Nia Quinones, a senior in Columbia College who is making her name in the world of vegan Instagram influencers, was whipping up dinner for two. With over 1,500 followers, Quinones’s profile, @niaquinoa, is a gorgeous assemblage of dorm-prep