Ari Ophir knows a little something about taking a chance.
But it’s not only because she’s from Las Vegas.
Rather, four years at Emory College of Arts and Sciences taught her the value of risk-taking, a message she’ll share with her fellow Emory College Class of 2025 graduates as class orator at the Emory College Diploma Ceremony.
“There is not a huge risk of loss at college. The risk is not pursuing the things we are passionate about,” says Ophir, an anthropology and human biology major and religion minor.
That is a hard-won confidence for Ophir, whose go-with-the-flow sensibility and aptitude for science nearly guided her to medical school.
But as each of her dares built on the last, she realized even what appeared to be setbacks ended up pointing her toward the right track.
“You can put yourself out there and know you’re not going to lose it all on red,” she adds. “That’s a lesson I hope we carry throughout our lives.”
Ophir will be the sole student speaker during the Emory College diploma ceremony. A selection committee of students, faculty and administrators chose her based on the emphasis of finding opportunity amid uncertainty, says Robert Torre, the College’s assistant director for academic affairs and head of the selection committee.
‘Brave enough to think broadly’
Arriving on campus from halfway across the country, Ophir embraced what appeared to be a practical risk first — taking a religion course in Buddhist ethics alongside Tibetan monastics to supplement a full slate of pre-med classes.
She and a monk from that class connected well enough to sit together in an introductory quantitative sciences class the next semester, when she also settled on her minor.
“The experience convinced me that I don’t have to study math or science to feel like I am a productive student and will be a productive adult,” says Ophir.
Still, she continued to consider herself a pre-med major and enrolled in the First-Year Research Experience (FYRE), a program designed to help students in all disciplines enter research quickly. The program’s message of remaining open to opportunities shaped every decision Ophir has made since.
“Our students are exceptionally talented, but so many feel pressure to complete specific classes or have specific experiences,” says Cora MacBeth, the associate dean of undergraduate education who taught FYRE. “Not Ari. She is brave enough to think broadly, without limits, which creates its own opportunities.”
The first opportunity came when Ophir joined psychology professor James Rilling’s neuroimaging lab the summer following her first year at Emory. She worked in the lab for another two years.
One day during her sophomore year, she took a break from helping to extract and analyze behavioral and imaging data by doodling on the breakroom whiteboard. Rilling happened across the detailed drawing of a chimpanzee head, and realized it was exactly the style he wanted for his latest book, which focused on paternal behavior in humans and the animal kingdom.
Rilling hired Ophir and included her illustrations in the book, “Father Nature: The Science of Paternal Potential.” Ophir’s original artwork hangs in his office.
“Ari is a very valued team member who I always knew I could count on, and she is an amazing artist, too,” Rilling says. “She really has explored a lot, which is what we want our students to do.”
That exploration included a hospital shadowing experience that revealed Ophir was too squeamish for a career in medicine. When the uncertainty started to get her down, she again turned to artwork.
Spreading joy with campus chalk drawings
Over the course of two years, Ophir also has shared her art with others, creating nearly three dozen intricate chalk drawings on pathways around campus and posting the results via Everybody Chalks! on Instagram. The images are usually cartoon characters and other childhood staples like Curious George, with song lyrics as messages meant to uplift and inspire.
“Ari tries to live in the moment and be joyous,” says best friend and fellow graduating senior Alex Vasilakopoulos. “There is no one I know who embodies Emory’s wise heart more than she does.”
That wisdom involved staying open, pursuing classes that applied hard-science data in social-science settings and continuing her volunteer work with the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge Program and as a student ambassador fellow with Emory Admissions.
Last year, a conversation with her roommate, Julia Marquis, led to informational interviews and an internship with Suave Brands Company. Ophir continued working with the company part-time this year. After Commencement, she’ll head to metro New York and work as part of Chapstick’s research and development team.
“Straying off the beaten path can let you find the most beautiful and unexpected things in life,” Ophir says. “Being at Emory convinced me of that. My wish is that we all let ourselves explore enough to experience that.”