Angela Cai ’09 likes to stay busy. In addition to her course work, she writes for the student newspaper, travels with the debate team and served on the Residential College Council. One of the things that attracted Cai to Princeton was that although the students’ lives are famously active, “We aren’t busy for the sake of being busy. Everyone is driven to have an educational and social experience that’s fulfilling,” she says.

Cai knows people who have started tutoring groups, studied in Africa or campaigned full time for a political candidate. They aren’t padding their resumes, says Cai, they’re making the most of a supportive and open learning environment.

As a senior writer for the student newspaper, Cai covers news and events around campus that she might have missed if she weren’t on staff. She also gets to mingle with famous Princeton minds; one of her stories profiled two Fields Medal — considered to be the math world’s Nobel Prize — winners associated with the University.

For Cai, debate adds a crucial layer to the college experience, because “it makes you think critically about issues you wouldn’t think about even in the classroom.” President of the Princeton University Debate Panel, Cai travels with the team to tournaments nearly every weekend.

She also organized last year’s high school debate tournament, which Princeton hosts annually. It was a mammoth administrative effort (more than 700 students participated), but well worth it to Cai, a New Jersey native who competed in the Princeton tournament herself as a high school student.

Cai will be majoring in the Woodrow Wilson School, and pursuing certificates in environmental studies and American studies. All of her classes at Princeton “have been inspiring in different ways,” she says, both in and out of her concentration. Her favorites so far have been “Civil Society and Public Policy” and two 20th-century art history courses.

The best part of “Civil Society and Public Policy” was the interactivity, says Cai. Professor Stanley Katz taught using the Socratic method, engaging directly with students in three-hour weekly seminars. Cai found herself constantly challenged to voice her opinions thoughtfully on controversial contemporary issues.

In art history class, Cai tried not to act surprised when she realized that sections of the textbook were written by her professor, Hal Foster. “The amazing part is that he doesn’t impose his interpretation on us at all,” says Cai.

Overall, though, Cai says her experience at Princeton has been shaped by the hardworking, inspiring students she encounters every day. “You’ll never find anyone who says, ‘I’m not doing anything,’” she says. “The entire school is made of people who are keen to use the resources that we’re given to make something out of their experience here.”