If you picked up a copy of Current magazine last week, you might have noticed that one of the faces on the cover looked a little familiar. If you did, you’re either a fan of MC Lars, or you’ve seen his alter-ego, senior Andrew Nielsen, around campus.

Current Magazine, a student-run publication produced in cooperation with Newsweek, featured Stanford’s Nielsen, senior Johnny Madrid and 13 other students from around the country in an article entitled “The College Vanguard: 15 Students You Don’t Know . . . But Will.”

While the editorial, business and design staff is primarily composed of Harvard University students, the content of the magazine is written by college students from campuses across the country. In an interview with The Daily, Harvard sophomore Anjali Salooja, the president of Current, said the magazine conducted a nationwide search to find the 15 who made the cut.

“The Current staff searched for students who have devoted themselves to developing something unique within their particular fields of interest — something that really has an effect on the world outside of themselves or their college campus,” she said. “In many cases, these students already have made an impact on the national stage, and we felt that this was a good indication that they would continue to do so in the months and years ahead.”

Musician Nielsen, who uses the name MC Lars for gigs, was recognized by the magazine for “[combining] his satire with modern technology to create addictive tunes with incessant hooks, sure to invade campus dance parties across the country,” Salooja said.

Featured in national media outlets, including MTV and Rolling Stone, Nielsen is currently taking the quarter off to tour. He said that though he was glad to be graduating this summer, his activities at Stanford have contributed to his musical interests.

“Being involved with KZSU has allowed me to set up shows at the CoHo and granted me access to 20 years of hip-hop vinyl for inspiration and education in that world,” he said. “Studying abroad in Oxford sophomore year let me connect with a British label that put out my 2003 album, which eventually led to getting on this tour with Bowling for Soup.”

Nielsen said he plans to continue his career with the release of an LP or a complete album in 2006, but also hopes to earn his doctorate in literature within the next few years.

Social activist Madrid was featured in the magazine for his eight years of work in foster care advocacy after having lived in 19 foster homes during his teenage years. At Stanford, he teaches a seminar on public speaking and manages the Stanford Foster Care College Project.

Outside of Stanford, he helped create the Foster Child Bill of Rights, which became law in 2001. Last year, Madrid received the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, an award honoring students for their work in public service. But in the future, he said he plans on going into the private sector and will start a new job at Goldman Sachs following graduation.

“While I want to dedicate my life to making the lives of other people better, despite what is commonly said, I feel that it is possible to make a difference from the private sector angle by sitting on boards and leveraging business contacts for the right causes,” Madrid said. “Also, because of my long history with foster care, I wanted to separate my professional self from my service self, at least for now. Should I come back to the public sector, I think I’d be a stronger candidate in many respects for having worked in the private sector.”

So far, Madrid has been invited to sit on the board of Foster Care Alumni of America, a nonprofit organization.

Madrid said he was both shocked and honored to discover he’d been selected for the magazine’s cover story.

“They sent a photographer up all the way from Los Angeles to take my picture,” he said. “The picture they used was funny — I’ve heard comments ranging from ‘artistically grounded’ to ‘looks like you just ate a bad burrito.’ “

Salooja said the magazine picked Nielsen for the cover because he “came across as an incredibly dynamic personality.”

“We were confident that he would convey that dynamism through the visual medium as well,” she said. “We wanted someone who would excite people to pick up the magazine and find out what exactly he had done to be named one of America’s next student leaders.”

Nielsen was flown to New York for the photo shoot.

“The photo shoot was at the Newsweek offices in New York,” he said. “The two girls on the cover with me were a poet (Chinaka Hodge) and an activist (Erica Dhawan) and they were nice. The Newsweek people gave us sandwiches.”

Madrid said that he didn’t realize the magazine would be so widely circulated.

“I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from friends and strangers from different schools almost daily who said they saw my picture,” he said. “One grad student called me because she wanted to become a foster parent. Overall, it’s been a rewarding experience, affirming some of the advocacy work I’ve done around foster care.”