{"id":31405,"date":"2019-08-13T15:41:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T19:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=31405"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:12:11","slug":"new-student-epley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=31405","title":{"rendered":"Why this singer chose Carolina over fame in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JordanNot many college applications have a resume quite like Jordan Epley\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Not only does the incoming first-year student have a great academic record from her international school in Thailand, but her extracurricular activities include participating in Thailand\u2019s version of the popular televised singing competition\u00a0The Voice\u00a0<\/em>and earning the MVP title in Thailand\u2019s junior NBA league.<\/p>\n

But all those accomplishments pale in comparison to getting into Carolina, Epley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in middle school when I said, \u2018I want to go to the University of North Carolina,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI was dead set on it, and I have been ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t remember what first drew her to the school \u2014 whether it was Michael Jordan and Carolina athletics, or if it was UNC-Chapel Hill\u2019s reputation as one of the most academically competitive schools in the world \u2014 but she\u2019s been wearing her Carolina blue proudly for the past seven years.<\/p>\n

The night she found out she was accepted to Carolina was one of the best of her life \u2014 a high bar for someone who has performed in front of 5,000 people as the opening act at a Nelly concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a feeling the decisions had come out, so I checked the admissions portal but wasn\u2019t expecting much,\u201d she said. \u201cI was scared I wasn\u2019t going to get in. But I opened it, and it said, \u2018Congratulations! You\u2019ve been accepted,\u2019 and I started freaking out. It was 12 in the morning, and I woke up my grandma. And that\u2019s when I knew I was going to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epley, who spent the first six years of her life in the United States before moving to Thailand with her family and grandparents to be closer to family roots, is excited to experience a new environment in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Thailand, I have so many friends from different countries \u2014 Brazil, Peru, Ghana, Korea \u2014 and getting to know their stories. It\u2019s really interesting,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody knows everybody here, and when I get to Carolina, it\u2019s really going to be the first time that I\u2019m not going to know everybody, so I\u2019m excited to meet new people and learn about their backgrounds and how they live.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to joining an intramural basketball team and maybe an a cappella group on campus, Epley looks forward to studying neuroscience. She\u2019s always gravitated toward science and psychology, and at Carolina, Epley plans to start her journey toward becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon.<\/p>\n

Becoming a pediatric neurosurgeon won\u2019t be easy, but Epley says she is ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it will be challenging,\u201d she said, \u201cbut if I don\u2019t have challenges, I get really bored. I like to push myself in everything I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Emilie Poplett, University Communications<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not many college applications have a resume quite like Jordan Epley\u2019s, which includes competing on Thailand’s “The Voice,” opening for a Nelly concert, and playing in the junior NBA. But after all that, coming to Carolina is still her dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,29,33,17,21,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-general","category-media-news","category-natural-sciences-mathematics","category-news","category-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49497,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31405\/revisions\/49497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}