Embracing Your Inner Geek

They came in first and second on “Beauty and the Geek,” but some people don’t think that Alan D. “Scooter” Zackheim ’06 and Nathan J. Dern ’07 deserve the “socially awkward” label.

“I read mostly sci-fi fantasy and I’m obsessed with maps,” protested Zackheim.

Zackheim, whose geek tag-line was “Graduated Harvard,” is pursuing an acting career; his plan for spending his share of the $250,000 grand prize includes such geeky things as paying rent.

Unwelcome rumors of coolness also plague Dern, who fronts the “Star Wars”-themed band So Long Princess. Isaac H. Ravishankara ’07 tried to give his blockmate and bandmate some geekcred. “Look at him,” he said. “He’s sitting in the corner filming himself eating.”

Dern, who was filming himself for VES 55r, “Personal Documentary,” claims to be “kind of a loner,” but he made a name for himself by getting together with one of the show’s “beauties,” Jennylee Berns.

“My dad had to leave the room when he saw me kissing Jennylee,” Dern said, but he still stands by the hookup. Rest easy, So Long Princess groupies: while the unlikely pair talk a couple of times a week, the So Long Princess front man says, “There’s no ring on my finger.”

Despite his penchant for entertainment, Dern has at least one geeky trait: he’s signed up for three more years of school, studying geography on a Harvard-Cambridge Scholarship next year and participating in Teach for America for the following two.

Says Dern, with the true cynicism of an ex-reality star, “My billboard has already been taken down in Times Square. This will all fade fast.”