Louis Cole just might be the modern-day version of Rice’s well-known sallyport carvings. The carvings embody the four stages of college life; starting with a youthful, smiling freshman and progressing to the wise and confident graduate.
Rice News first interviewed Cole, a Houston-native, in the fall of 2016 during an O-Week academic fair where he said “I’m so excited to meet everyone else from Rice because just this week I’ve met so many amazing people.”
After the excitement of O-Week, Cole discovered chemical physics after initially thinking he would be a pre-med student.
“My expectation for college was to take a couple chemistry and biology courses and then go to med school, as you see now, that has completely turned around and I've learned things about quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics,” he said. “I feel like I've accomplished a goal that I didn't even know was a goal until I got here.”
Cole also set a goal to have a good time while at Rice. This year he is the Duncan College president and has been involved in O-Week all four years.
“I am that typical right student who does the O-Week pathway, who participates in beer bike,” Cole said. “I think that part of my social life just comes from the fact that I put myself out there.”