U.S. Senator William Cowan (D-Mass.) urged graduates of the McDonough School of Business to balance the concepts of net worth and self worth in their future endeavors during the school’s commencement ceremony Saturday evening.
Prior to his Senate appointment by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in February 2013, Cowan served as chief of staff and chief legal counsel to the Massachusetts governor.
Before entering the public sector, Cowan was a litigation associate and later a partner at Boston law firms.
“William Cowan … represents the spirit of Georgetown and the McDonough School of Business as a community of principled leaders committed to transforming the business world,” Pietra Rivoli, deputy dean of the MSB, said in her reading of Cowan’s honorary degree citation.
In the degree citation, Rivoli stressed that the university chose to confer Cowan with the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, because of his commitment to improving his community and the nation.
Cowan began his address by encouraging students to be conscious of their surroundings and to live in the moment.
He noted that though graduates had previously been measured constantly by GPAs, SATs and more, these numbers mean little in the future. Now, he said, they will be valued based on net and self worth, two concepts that graduates must balance properly.
“I ask that amid the dollar signs, you search for those intangible things that will make you a valuable member of society,” Cowan said.
Cowan referred to the American classic, “The Great Gatsby,” in which the titular character fails to find complete satisfaction solely through financial gains.
“Investment in your self worth will allow you to better your net worth,” Cowan said.
Cowan noted that he confronted his own challenges balancing net and self worth when he was first offered a position in the governor’s office, as leaving his position as a partner resulted in a significant drop in his salary.
However, as he began to become more involved in his own community with a mentorship program and a charter school board, Cowan realized that he really needed a job that allowed him to give back.
“By interacting more with the world around me, I gained perspective on my day job,” he said. “My self worth was suffering in pursuit of my net worth.”
Cowan encouraged graduates not to let the pursuit of financial gains allow their personal growth to suffer. 

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite (GRD ’92) encouraged graduating seniors to embrace challenges at the School of Foreign Service commencement ceremony Saturday afternoon.
Grybauskaite, who was an economics fellow at the SFS from 1990 to 1992, was elected as head of state in 2009. Before being elected Lithuania’s first female president, she served in the Lithuanian Department of Foreign Affairs as Lithuania’s finance minister and as European Union budget commissioner.
The SFS ceremony proceeded in a different order than originally scheduled in the program, with the conferring of the degrees preceding the commencement address.
Government and SFS professor Angela Stent read the honorary degree citation for Grybauskaite. University President John J. DeGioia conferred upon the head of state the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.
“The president’s achievements were the result of determination, hard work, intellect and perseverance,” Stent said. “This makes her both beacon and icon not only for the women and men who graduating today but for aspiring young people around the world.”
Grybauskaite began by addressing the graduating SFS students as colleagues and discussed how her time at Georgetown influenced her.
“For you, dear colleagues, because you are my colleagues, after 20 years it will also be a possibility to become a president somewhere, sometime,” she said. “I understand how important today is for you. For me that was 21 years ago that I was here.”
Grybauskaite left Lithuania to study at Georgetown shortly after her country achieved independence from the Soviet Union.
“While studying here I experienced real freedom,” she said. “After the program I came back home with newly issued documents and with a better vision for my country in my heart.”
After she returned home from studying at Georgetown, Lithuania was experiencing massive change.
“Avoid anything that is easy. Embrace the difficult,” Grybauskaite said. “My generation was destined to be born under occupation but blessed with an opportunity to live in the times of change. We did not simply witness change, we lived the change. We were the change, and we still are.”
Grybauskaite said that as seniors leave Georgetown to begin their careers, they will experience difficulties.
“Do not shy away from challenges, never, that will come your way in your life. They are the wave you have to ride in order not to stay behind,” she said. “Yes, it requires courage and strength but also brings satisfaction and joyful moments that you can do it. And it brings you and your country a lot of steps forward.”
To conclude her eight-minute speech, the Lithuanian president encouraged seniors to take risks.
“You need to have courage and responsibility to make a difference, no matter how hard,” Grybauskaite said. “You can correct mistakes. What you cannot correct is missed opportunities.” 

Nationally recognized health policy researcher and President of AcademyHealth Lisa Simpson shared four lessons from her medical career with students of the School of Nursing and Health Studies at commencement Saturday.
Before working at AcademyHealth, Simpson was a director of the Child Policy Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati.
During the honorary degree citation, Howard Federoff, executive dean of the School of Medicine, noted that Simpson has merited numerous awards for her research on childhood obesity, including the 2010 Excellence in Public Policy and Advocacy from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the 2007 Health Policy Researcher of the Year award from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio. Federoff described Simpson as an excellent researcher and praised her ability to bridge policy and practice.
In her address to graduates, Simpson noted that her career had followed a different path from what she imagined at her own graduation.
“Looking back now, I see that the future I imagined for myself that day is very different from where I ended up,” she said. “The degree you worked so hard on is just a beginning, not an end.”
Simpson identified four lessons from her own life that she hoped graduates would take with them into their new careers.
For the first lesson, Simpson emphasized the importance of adapting to new situations.
“You are graduating at a time of unprecedented change in this country,” she said. “The passage of the Affordable Care Act, exploding application of technology to medical care and the impact of spiraling health care costs are just some of the forces behind this change.”
Simpson also said learning is key to managing change.
“Learning will be essential as the world changes,” she said. “In our professional careers we must keep updating our knowledge, challenging our assumptions, or someone else will.” 
The second lesson Simpson shared was that it is important to be prepared when change presents an opportunity.
“Your training has prepared you to seek knowledge in science,” Simpson said. “The [Jesuit] tradition of this institution compels you to also seek justice.”
In her third lesson, Simpson discussed the importance of finding the right way to express one’s passion and cited a conversation she once had with John Eisenberg, the former physician-in-chief of Georgetown.
“You will each find the right medium to express your passion,” she said. “John Eisenberg once asked me what lit a fire in my belly. Well, I answered by telling him by what I did. He gave me the nudge to go back and keep working on what I was passionate about: children’s health.”
Simpson used visual aids to show the different paths that graduates of the NHS may take, whether as registered nurses or healthcare managers. 
“For those of you who will be RNs, you will have the ultimate privilege of glancing into the souls of individuals in need,” she said.
Simpson encouraged interested graduates to pursue evidence-based health research, the same work that she does.
“Come join us,” Simpson said. “Your innovation and creativity will help us paint a new and different policy picture.”
In her final lesson, Simpson urged graduates to simply be kind.
“Healthcare in this country is too often unkind,” she said. “A kind word, touch or smile are oh-so-effective salves for the pain people experience in their lives. You will touch the world with your creativity but be remembered for your kindness.” 

Women’s rights advocate and founder of the Run for Congo Women campaign Lisa Shannon called on graduates of the College to exercise empathy as a means of empowerment at commencement Saturday morning.
Shannon’s organization raises funds to support women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Shannon said that her group has raised $15 million, enough to support 90,000 Congolese women and children. In addition to her work in the Congo, Shannon started Sister Somalia, the first rape and hotline support program in Mogadishu, Somalia. She has also written a memoir, “A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman.”
Psychology professor Steven Sabat presented the citation for Shannon’s honorary degree, which University President John J. DeGioia conferred upon her.
“Instead of choosing a comfortable life, working to build a thriving business, Lisa went to Congo and devoted herself to helping extraordinarily vulnerable people living in the direst of conditions,” Sabat said. “Lisa Shannon’s values align beautifully with the spirit of Georgetown by recognizing the virtue of women and men for others.”
Shannon said learning about genocide in the Congo while watching Oprah motivated her to get involved personally. She started out small and did a 30-mile lone trail run to raise money. After raising $28,000 from her first run, she has organized several larger runs, including the annual Run for Congo Women — New York event.
On the first run she organized in New York, there was a large storm and only one other person showed up to run. Despite the disappointment, her passion for Congolese women motivated her to continue the work.
“I’d like to talk about power. It’s a tricky thing because it so often lurks in the moments that we least expect to find it,” Shannon said. “The empathy switch, flip it on, keep it on, it will fuel you over the threshold of doubt, of fear, of discomfort to find power.”
Shannon discussed her efforts to lobby Congress to pass a bill to combat the use of conflict minerals in 2010. She said empathy helped her protest and confront people opposed to the bill.
“Some people talk about compassion fatigue as though empathy wears you down. I’ve actually found the opposite to be true,” she said. “I found empathy to operate more like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the more power it gives, the more reflexive it becomes. It’s not that stepping up become more comfortable. It’s just that comfort becomes less relevant in the face of this sort of empathy override.”
Shannon concluded by calling for members of the Class of 2013 to put themselves in challenging situations to advocate for causes larger than themselves.
“I have one wish for all of you: that you do not pass up that invitation, that you do not choose comfort, sole-numbing comfort,” she said. “That you flip on your empathy switch, cross that threshold and dare disturb the universe.”

More than one month after winning $100,000 in the Jeopardy College Championship, Jim Coury (SFS ’15) was finally able to share his victory with friends and family after the final episode aired Friday night.
The final round of the college championship included two separate episode. Though Coury finished the first night of the final round in third place with $8,600, he managed to come back to win the championship by the end of the second night.
“I was kind of nervous coming in just because I knew that I had a little bit of ground to make up,” Coury said. “I just tried to really be aggressive and I made some guesses that I wasn’t sure about but ended up working out to try to get some more money than I would have otherwise.”
Coury took a risk and bet all of his $5,400 in the first daily double, which paid off when he got the answer right. Coury sealed his victory when he identified Tennessee as the last state to join the Confederacy in the Final Jeopardy round.
“It was really fun to see it all put together and to relive it,” Coury said. “I actually didn’t remember a lot of questions, so when I was watching it again it was sort of new, even though I knew how it ended.”
The Jeopardy College Championship was filmed in Los Angeles April 8 and 9. Coury’s parents, who attended the competition in April, knew the results. Though Coury was supposed to keep the results a secret, he did tell a few close friends and family members.
“I gave it away a few times. It was not the best-kept secret,” he said. “It was hard to always be thinking about it and be really careful, so that was nice that I can finally just not worry about that anymore and just talk about it without having to worry about giving anything away.”
Coury said he will use most of his $100,000 award for tuition. He said that he would like to use a little bit of his winnings to take a road trip out west to Wyoming or Utah. 

The May 3 vote by Georgetown’s adjunct professors to unionize was certified by the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, allowing the Services Employees International Union Local 500 to represent Georgetown adjunct faculty members.
Following Friday’s official tally, the NLRB allowed a seven-day waiting period for objections regarding election protocol, but none arose from the university or the union.
SEIU will represent part-time, non-tenure-track faculty on the main campus as a single bargaining unit, including those who did not vote for unionization.
“I think if a deal is made … it will affect all adjuncts, regardless if they are union members,” said Pablo Eisenberg, a senior fellow at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and 12-year adjunct faculty member. “A lot of adjuncts who were not in favor of unionization will still benefit from unionization and the negotiations.”
SEIU will not represent adjunct faculty members from the Georgetown University Law Center or the Georgetown University Medical Center.
The university and the union will soon meet to discuss a new contract. According to an email from Provost Robert Groves to university faculty members, the timeline is unclear for the negotiating process.
Eisenberg said that talks would most likely start during the summer.
According to Anne McLeer, SEIU director of research and strategic planning, the union is currently compiling input from the adjunct faculty in order to determine the most pressing issues through a survey and focus groups.
“We invited everyone to come and talk about what changes they’d like to see,” McLeer said. “We heard a lot during the campaign, but we’d like to get to specifics and set priorities.”
Overall, McLeer said she expected part-time faculty members to be interested in job security, a voice in department decision-making and pay closer to that of full-time faculty members.
Senior Advisor to the President for Faculty Relations Lisa Krim gave a presentation to the faculty senate Tuesday evening, discussing potential implications of the vote.
“It can take quite a while to reach an agreement,” Krim said. “There won’t be an immediate impact. There won’t be changes for summer, quite possibly not even for the fall.”
After an agreement is reached between the union and the university, the adjunct faculty members will be able to vote on the agreement. According to McLeer, the process could take up to six months.
Krim cited the university’s behavior prior to the vote as an indication for the productivity of future talks.
“If the process of election was any indication, it is likely to be very productive and very professional,” Krim said.
McLeer agreed.
“We have every confidence that this will be a collaborative and productive process.”
Krim said that the union would most likely be pursuing an increase in salary for adjunct faculty members, although Georgetown’s current pay level is relatively high compared to other universities. Krim did not state specific statistics but said the university used preliminary market data.
“This is not a situation where the folks who already negotiated [with SEIU] are high and Georgetown is bringing up the bottom,” Krim said. “Our salaries are competitive, but there are a lot of variation among programs and schools. I can easily see the union advocating for much more consistency and advocating for a floor.”
In addition, Krim spoke about healthcare for adjunct faculty members, especially with the Affordable Care Act in play.
“[The Affordable Care Act] requires the university to cover, I think, 90 percent of full-time employees, so the real questioning that is percolating … is how do you count ‘full-time?’”
In addition, the definition of “part-time” can differ between that used in the Affordable Care Act and the university definition regarding union representation.
“Various formulas are being put out there … but the law hasn’t settled down … we’re looking for more guidance out of the government, and that will hopefully come sooner than later,” Krim said.
Adjunct professor of psychology Frank Warman, who abstained from the unionization vote, said that success would be potentially difficult on points such as job security or pay.
“All universities are strained as far as budgets are concerned. One of the reasons they hire adjuncts is because of their budgets,” Warman said. “The kinds of things they’re asking for, such as healthcare benefits or job security, where they want to know well in advance whether they would teach in the future, I know, at least in my department, that’s not really something that the chair knows until the semester before.”
Overall, McLeer encouraged all adjunct faculty members to participate in the process and contact the union with concerns, whether or not they originally voted for the union.
“We represent everyone, and everyone equally has the opportunity to make positive, lasting change,” McLeer said. 

After dropping the past seven games — and 10 of its past 12 — the Georgetown baseball team (25-25, 5-16 Big East) is looking to put behind its recent hardships and finish strong against a similarly struggling Villanova. 

The recent losing streak has eliminated Georgetown from qualifying for the Big East tournament, but the Hoyas still have a chance to finish with a winning record, something that has never happened in Head Coach Pete Wilk’s 14-year tenure with the team.

The losing streak began on the heels of two home victories against Maryland Eastern Shore and Coppin State, the second of which came in an extra-innings thriller. But in those 10 innings against the Eagles, the Hoyas committed five errors in the field, perhaps an indicator of the poor stretch of play that was to come.

“We’re really trying to have them focused on defending 90 feet — making routine plays and not giving up free base-runners,” Wilk said. “And when you create extra base-runners, it’s a recipe for trouble.”

Georgetown has lost games in a number of different ways during the slide: close, one-run games, including Tuesday’s loss to Maryland Baltimore County, as well as blowouts like a 17-3 debacle against Rutgers. 

Part of the trouble has been injuries to the pitching staff, which has only complicated the fact that Georgetown’s healthier hurlers have not been having their best outings as of late. 

“The defense has been poor, and we’ve had some injuries that have contributed to that — and I’m not trying to make excuses, but that’s been the difference in the second half of the season and the first half,” Wilk said. “The first half was really good, and our second half was not good.”

Tuesday night’s contest against UMBC epitomized that tale of two seasons, with Georgetown losing 6-5 to a team it had beaten 7-4 at Shirley Povich Field on March 13. 

The Hoyas clung to a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning when sophomore reliever Will Brown hit the first two batters he faced before giving up an infield single that loaded the bases. A single by the next A single by the next batter tied the game, and UMBC managed two more runs in the seventh that proved too much for Georgetown to overcome.

“We’re playing hard, [but] we’re just not playing well,” Wilk said. “We’re beating ourselves.”

Still, the focus for the team now is clear. Three winnable games against last-place Villanova await to close things out, and a series win would give Georgetown its first winning season in 27 years. 

The recent losing streak has dampened an otherwise successful and promising season for the Hoyas, who jumped out to a great start early in the year and continued that strong play against non-conference opponents, earning a 20-9 record outside of the Big East. 

The Blue and Gray have won only one series in Big East play, but that victory did come against South Florida, one of the premier teams in the conference.  

For better or worse, though, this final series against the Wildcats will go a long way toward dictating the lasting narrative of the season. And Wilk is hoping that his players are able to leave the diamond with the right, positive perspective of how 2013 truly went.

“I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth right now, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I’d hate to end our year like this,” Wilk said. “If we don’t win the series, it’s going to leave a bad taste in our mouth in what should be a big step forward for this program.”

“This team has been a pleasure to work with, and they’re a great bunch of kids. I’m just hoping we can finish on a high note, especially for these seniors. They deserve it.”

Tomorrow morning, Georgetown’s senior student-athletes will don their caps and gowns just like everyone else, wait — and maybe sleep — for hours in their seats just like everyone else and, eventually, walk up to receive their hard-earned diplomas just like everyone else.

After all, due to a home series with Villanova for men’s baseball and an unexpected NCAA tournament exit for women’s lacrosse, both spring teams will find themselves at home on the Hilltop for Commencement Day. That isn’t always the case; some years, as in 2012, scheduling is just outside their control.

But former players say that that doesn’t at all mean we should pity them for ‘missing out’ out on the bigger event.

In fact, when reached by phone this week, Kevin Johnson (MSB ’12) explained that the quiet Monday graduation ceremony he and his teammates attended last spring in Riggs Library may have been even better — or, at least, far more meaningful.

“It was nice that it was small — the space was small — so even though we just had 50-odd people there, it felt homey, almost,” Johnson said. “People were talking and stuff — it was nice.”

The intimate atmosphere was just one aspect that made the Monday service special for last year’s seniors. University President John J. DeGioia,  traditionally speaks at the separate ceremony for athletes as he will Saturday for the entire senior class.

With such a small group,  the president’s comments could be very specifically tailored.

“It was about what we did as a team and what we did as athletes,” Johnson said. “[DeGoia was] talking to us, not just giving your run-of-the-mill speech. You can tell that they cared.”

And with the whole process taking no more than 30 minutes, according to Johnson, it might not even be fair to say in this case that DeGioia’s message was worth the wait. Those present in Riggs usually include just family, girlfriends, academic advisors and some fifth-year seniors, and the process is heavily streamlined due to the mere handful set to receive degrees.

The downside to smaller attendance is obvious, as the Monday-graduating athletes miss out on celebrating with all their classmates on the lawn as they otherwise would.

It may not be the traditional spirit of graduation, therefore, but it may just represent a purer form of it.

“With the drinking and everything, it can get lost,” Johnson said. “Looking back, I’m probably glad we did it that way. My best friends in college were my teammates, so we got to start together and finish it together.”

“Finish it together” didn’t just extend to the confines of Healy Hall, either: In 2012, baseball completed its season with that aforementioned road trip to Cincinnati, where the senior Hoyas had brunch with the coaches and got to go out on the diamond as a unit one last time. 

So yes, what Johnson and others often go through is most decidedly not standard graduation fare. But you’ll have a hard time convincing any of those who have been through the experience that it’s not at least as memorable.

After an eight-month selection process, a non profit founder, a prominent health policy researcher, the Lithuanian president and a U.S. senator will speak at commencement ceremonies tomorrow for Georgetown’s 1,500 graduating seniors.
Each undergraduate college is responsible for securing its own commencement speaker, and this process varies across schools. However, nominations are generally made by faculty members of each of Georgetown’s schools to the deans of the respective department. These are then reviewed and forwarded to the university’s board of directors for approval.
The process of securing commencement speakers begins as early as September of the year preceding the May graduation ceremony. Schools propose primary candidates and as many as two alternate speakers in the September or December meetings of the faculty senate.
Georgetown generally confers honorary degrees upon its commencement speakers. It is against university policy to pay a speaker’s fee or honoraria to honorary degree recipients except under unusual circumstances not specified in the university’s policy. This practice is in stark contrast to other schools that reportedly spend between $5,000 and $50,000 to secure commencement speakers. Universities — Georgetown included — are generally reluctant to discuss such arrangements.
“Our commencement speakers this year are extraordinary individuals, representing the highest levels of excellence in a diverse array of fields — from public service to public health, education, economics and humanitarian endeavors,” University President John J. DeGioia said in a statement. “By sharing their experience and wisdom, they offer inspiration to our students, who are themselves, at this moment in their lives, envisioning the impact they can make in our world.”
U.S. Senator William Cowan (D-Mass.), who was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to fill U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s vacant senate seat in January, will be speaking at the McDonough School of Business commencement ceremony.
Cowan previously worked as Patrick’s chief of staff and as a lawyer focused on corporate governance, financial management, the environment, patents and consumer protection. He now serves on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
“I’m thrilled to have the chance to speak this weekend to graduates of Georgetown University’s McDonough Undergraduate School of Business and their families,” Cowan told THE HOYA. “As the graduates enter life after college, they now have the exciting opportunity to add wisdom to their accumulated knowledge; they have the opportunity to be defined not only by their net-worth but most importantly by their self-worth. By exercise of wisdom and attention to self-worth, these graduates will leave their mark on the world.”
Cowan will also give the commencement address at Boston College Law School on May 24.
Addressing the School of Nursing &' Health Studies is AcademyHealth President and CEO Lisa Simpson, a pediatrician and nationally recognized health policy researcher. AcademyHealth’s mission includes educating consumers and policymakers about health services, fundraising and providing professional development opportunities. Before joining the nonprofit, Simpson served as the director of the Child Policy Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and professor of pediatrics in the division of health policy and clinical effectiveness in the Department of Pediatrics at University of Cincinnati.
“I am so honored to be the commencement speaker for the School of Nursing and Health Studies. The school’s graduates are entering the field at a seminal moment in our history. From health reform to patient engagement and health information technologies to biomedical innovations, we are entering a period of explosive opportunity,” Simpson told The Hoya.
Speaking at the Georgetown College commencement ceremony this year is Lisa Shannon, founder of Run for Congo Women, grassroots effort Sister Somalia and advocacy organization A Thousand Sisters. Through Run for Congo Women, Shannon has raised $12 million for women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and sponsored more than 1,400 Congolese women financially and through leadership and rights awareness training.
A Thousand Sisters furthers the mission of Run for Congo Women by focusing on increasing awareness of violence in the Congo through dialogue and fundraising efforts, while Sister Somalia is the first rape and hotline support program in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite (GRD ’92) will be addressing School of Foreign Service graduates. After completing a six-month program for senior executives at Georgetown, Grybauskaite served as Lithuania’s deputy finance minister from 1999 to 2000, deputy foreign minister from 2000 to 2001 and finance minister from 2001 to 2004. She became the European Union commissioner responsible for financial programming and the budget in 2004 and took office as president of Lithuania in July 2009.
Grybauskaite, who was named Glamour magazine’s woman of the year in 2010, is the first female president of her country and has become famous for focusing on domestic issues, especially poverty and national financial problems.
All of this year’s graduation ceremony speakers will receive honorary degrees, except for U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the lecturer at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s Tropaia ceremony.
Also speaking at commencement events this weekend are Adams University Professor of Economics at Harvard University and winner of 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics Eric Maskin to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Humanitarian Services for the American Red Cross President Gerald M. DeFrancisco to the School of Continuing Studies, Brazilian Ambassador to the U.S. Mauro L.I. Vieira to the MBA program, “CBS Evening News” producer Erin Lyall (GRD ’02) and U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman to the Master of Science in Foreign Service program, National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence Sir Michael Rawlins to the School of Medicine and Fox News commentator Greta Van Susteren (LAW ’79, LAW ’82) to the Law Center. Retired Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer of MedStar Health William Thomas and Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus (LAW ’01) will also be receiving honorary degrees but will not speak at any commencement ceremonies.

Members of the Class of 2013 will soon experience the sudden shift from the student body to the alumni network. While this transition from university life to the real world offers an onslaught of expectations and adjustment, this past year has shown that young alumni can make a tangible impact on the university.
In March, a modest donation by a young alumna pushed the Campaign for Georgetown to the impressive $1 billion benchmark toward its $1.5 billion goal. Officially launched in fall 2011, the capital campaign has made considerable strides in energizing the university’s neglected endowment.
By emphasizing broad participation rather than just targeting sizeable gifts from high-income donors, the campaign engages former residents of the Hilltop without alienating those who aren’t big earners. With funds dedicated to increasing the number of scholarships offered, improving student life and maintaining faculty and academic excellence, the campaign provides a strong link between a broad spectrum of past Georgetown students and future generations.
With construction of the Healey Family Student Center approaching and expansion of the School of Continuing Studies into downtown Washington, D.C., already underway, Georgetown has demonstrated its intentions on pushing forward. And as the members of the Class of 2013 move forward in their own lives, they can look to the capital campaign as a way to stay connected to the Georgetown community.
The various speeches given during commencement tomorrow will undoubtedly reference the exciting journeys that lie ahead. We are sure, however, that members of the Class of 2013 will not soon forget the community they leave behind. 

Many factors contribute to the value of a degree: whether it is a bachelor’s or an associate, the major it signifies, the prestige of the university by which it was awarded and so on. However, the determinant that many have a hard time ignoring is the ease with which their degree will land them a job.
In light of the recent economic climate, this shift of priorities seems all too natural. According to a recent survey conducted by consulting company Accenture, graduating seniors’ expectations of immediately finding a well-paying job in their chosen field are becoming increasingly unrealistic. 
A competitive job market and the disconnect between employers’ needs and the perceived skills of students make it difficult for recent graduates to immediately land the job of their dreams. But seniors should trust the value of their Georgetown education and the fact that it will eventually pay off — in time, if not out of the gate.
Although the employment outlook can be daunting for many Georgetown alumni, it is also true for students across the country. According to the Cawley Career Education Center’s Class of 2012 Senior Survey Report, only 4 percent of last year’s Georgetown graduates were still seeking employment six months after graduation, compared to the national average of 30 percent.
With many students facing substantial loan debt and bigger expectations, it is understandable that post-college employment is high stakes and high stress. But a four-year education on the Hilltop is worth more than a quick payoff, and seniors can take comfort in the timeless value of their Georgetown degree. 

The university delayed announcement of the 2013 commencement speakers until nearly the end of final exams, finally revealing a lineup that some find underwhelming. While those receiving honorary degrees Saturday are likely deserving, the Georgetown community also deserves a selection process that is transparent and timely.
Each of Georgetown’s schools has its own graduation ceremony and commencement speaker. The process for securing speakers can take as long as eight months, yet the university released the news May 9. Other colleges announced their commencement guests months before graduation — Howard University and The George Washington University in March, the University of Virginia in January.
We have commended Georgetown in the past for finding speakers tailored to each undergraduate school’s academic focus. Yet the university hurts its cause by making these selections entirely in the dark. That is made even worse when news of the speakers breaks hardly a week before graduation, giving people little time to digest and appreciate the choices.
It would not be appropriate to have students vote on speaker options, and the reasoning behind these choices as it currently stands might be entirely sound. A simple explanation from the university of why commencement speakers are chosen would benefit everyone involved.
One change we do not endorse, however, is paying commencement speakers. While other universities reportedly pay anywhere from $5,000 and $50,000 to draw high-profile names to deliver commencement addresses, Georgetown has chosen to continue its tradition of focusing on school-specific speakers who provide substance rather than widespread recognition without providing payment. This tradition is admirable and well suited for Georgetown. It would cheapen the occasion to the process into a bidding war for celebrity speakers.
If Georgetown means to choose its speakers with integrity, the selection process behind the choices must be more transparent. When the announcement finally came, the university did not, as it had done in previous years, provide biographical information on its choices, rather posting links to the speakers’ own personal Web pages. As a result of these oversights, the decision gives some the impression that it was rushed, which may not be the case.
This is not to say that fanfare outweighs substance. But if the selection process involves as much consideration as the university claims, the administration should publicly substantiate its choices. If the speakers truly merit greater appreciation than a big-name celebrity, the university could easily take steps to make that clear.
 

Rather than trekking to the third floor of the Leavey Center to view student group account balances, student leaders will now be able to log online when the Center for Student Programs debuts a financing application on HoyaLink next fall.
The CSP will use an $8,500 Georgetown University Student Association allocation from the Student Activities Fee Endowment to introduce the new online financing system.
“We have been wrestling with the problem of how to give student organization leaders better access to their university accounts in real time for a couple of years,” CSP Director Erika Cohen Derr said.
The goal of streamlining funding for student groups is not new, but, according to Cohen Derr, the introduction of HoyaLink in spring 2012 provided the first practical opportunity to do so.
“The way we would have done it with the existing system would have been too cumbersome and required a lot of paperwork to give a bunch of people a little access to the system,” Cohen Derr said.
The new software is the result of several years of discussion between the CSP and club treasurers as well as student life reports from both 1999 and 2012, which revealed a need to increase the technological efficiency of student groups.
“We’ve been in conversation with student group leaders about this for a long time,” Cohen Derr said. “We are always looking for input from student leaders and then we have to take that input and think about what works within the systems that are already in place.”
Sheila Walsh (COL ’14), a co-author of the 2012 report, said that the report committee advocated for online finance options for student groups.
“[The committee] talked a lot about centralized space booking and, along with that, centralized finance options,” she said. “For a long time, groups haven’t even been able to look at their cost center numbers without going into the CSP.”
A trip to the CSP as chair of the GUSA Finance and Appropriations Committee corroborated Walsh’s belief that online financing statements should be a priority.
“I was shocked to find that the only way I could look at GUSA’s general account was to physically go into the CSP myself,” Walsh said.
The new program will allow student group leaders to access individual finances and cost center reports online.
The $8,500 of GUSA funding will be used to create two student positions devoted to running the new site.
“The money is exclusively dedicated to the two student staff salaries who will be paid to do the most work on this,” Cohen Derr said. “They will become HoyaLink finance experts.”
Walsh said the Fin/App Committee recognized the benefits of these new positions when they voted to finance the salaries.
“It’s going to take a huge burden off of group treasurers,” Walsh said. “We thought it made way more sense to give it to people with specialized knowledge of the system.”
The new system is designed to reduce the bureaucracy and paperwork that currently surrounds funding requests. Though finance records will now be available online, student group advisers will still play a role.
“My hope is that it will mean that student groups can log in from their own computers and check the balance in their accounts — what’s been paid, approved, what needs more documentation — all the info that they look for now,” Cohen Derr said.
Additionally, Walsh said that the new feature will help institutionalize HoyaLink, which she thinks has been underutilized by student groups.
“I think this year will be a trial run and I think it’ll help curb the criticism about HoyaLink,” she said. “Some people don’t use it regularly but if we promote using the finance portion it’ll become more institutionalized.”
Student groups are optimistic about the new feature.
“We already use HoyaLink for some things as treasurer, but I can definitely see how this will streamline the process,” Georgetown University Grilling Society Treasurer Mary Bacon (COL ’15) said. “I think [the new system] will help ensure that groups are accountable to their funding and will make the whole process more fair.”
CSP will determine the details of the practices and protocols for the new program this summer before the official launch in fall 2013. Blueprint, the mandatory training for student group leaders at the beginning of every semester, will incorporate the new software into its training.

There is a lot that can be accomplished in four years at Georgetown, but a lot that can be overlooked if you let yourself become sucked into the Georgetown bubble. The Georgetown bubble has stopped me from touring the monuments, visiting the Smithsonian and eating at Busboys and Poets. I have at times become so trapped in the cycle of school and extracurriculars that M Street and Healy Lawn were the most exciting places I visited.
Even though I didn’t always explore Washington D.C., the Georgetown bubble offered its own excitements. When I started Georgetown as a freshman, I had no idea that I would end up so thoroughly engaged on campus. As a naive first-year student, my only objective was to absorb the knowledge of the researchers and dignitaries around me. I never imagined being an active leader on campus. After New Student Orientation in August 2009, I planned to lock myself in my room and study all day without a social or extracurricular life.
But that would quickly change after I received an email inviting all College freshmen to run for College Academic Council. After a mere three weeks on campus, I found myself running against nine other candidates for four seats. I swiftly became quite social as I actively knocked on doors in freshman residence halls, gave campaign spiels in Leo’s and handed out quarter sheet fliers during parties. Little did I know, I was slowly becoming a campus leader.
On my 18th birthday, I learned that I had been elected to the College Academic Council. I made my most significant impact and contribution on the Hilltop during my freshman year, as my colleagues and I worked to implement the business administration minor after many negotiations between the College and the McDonough School of Business deans’ offices. It makes me proud to hear my peers say that they are pursuing a business minor while standing in the stir-fry line at Leo’s.
After freshman year, I took on more leadership roles within Res-Life and the Student Activities Commission. I even organized a petting zoo for stress relief during finals with the Southwest Quad Hall Council.
Staying on campus had its advantages. My campaign video for SAC chair took on a life of its own, with students imitating Jed Feiman’s (COL ’12) “Dalvin Butler” voice. Outside of structured extracurricular activities, I began to explore my creative side. Each week, I ventured to Walsh in the middle of the night to release all of my artistic energy through painting. Even within the Georgetown bubble, the Hoya experience I’d envisioned had been surpassed by a million percent.
While my experiences as a student leader shaped my understanding of Georgetown, my Hoya experience was not complete until I finally got to explore the District last summer. I worked at the RHO and was luckily to spend many warm days at the National Mall, in Dupont Circle and on U Street.
Now, my GUTV talk show, “The Hoya Experience” has opened my eyes to the media world at Georgetown. As a freshman, I never would have thought that I would create my talk show and produce the short films “The GUSA Sabotage” and the newly released “The Georgetown Retaliation.”
The Hoya experience is what you make it. Mine was filled with unexpected adventures both inside and outside the front gates.

Dalvin Butler is a senior in the College. He is the host of GUTV’s “The Hoya Experience” 

As I have been thinking about my past four years on the Hilltop and getting ready to move to Baltimore, there are so many thoughts and emotions running through my mind and heart. The prospect of continuing to live far from my family, moving to a new city, starting a 9-to-5 job, learning about sales and public relations and joining activities to get to know new people are all things that simultaneously worry and excite me. However, the main thing on my mind is community. What will my community look like after college? How will I find it?
With friends going as far as South Africa, Ireland and South America and as close as Washington, D.C., I anticipate that it will be a global community. I will also be making new friends in Baltimore and hopefully hearing new stories and listening to new opinions and thoughts. As in every transition, I’m sure these experiences will reshape my idea of — and hopes for — community.
In high school, my communities were my family, a few scattered but good friends, one core group of ladies, choir, my track team and my friends from China. In college, my communities have been club ultimate, my GUSA administration, the entrepreneurship family, my STIA friends, my junior year apartment and many more random and beautiful souls who have walked into my life in different ways. Some of these groups of people have shaped and impacted me in ways that I could never replicate after graduation. However, some of these communities are made up of a few individuals who really made a continuing unique and powerful impact on who I am and how I live my life. These individuals will likely be the people with whom I keep in touch, but I do not want to lose those bigger communities. I want to figure out how to find those groups again in post-college life.
Because there are competitive leagues all over the country, ultimate will be an easy and fast way to continue an important community from my college life. My GUSA administration and my STIA studies, on the other hand, were once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. I will of course never forget them, and I must reflect on the best qualities of the people in those communities and try to find ways to seek out those qualities in new communities.
I think the most challenging community for me to reintegrate into my life will be my family. I was so engaged in my college years that I don’t think that I was there for my family in the way that I expect myself to be after graduation. Because I’m not returning to my home on the West Coast, it will be important to be more actively engaged with and there for my family in a way that fulfills my desires to be closer with them, even though I am physically far away.
My family, though, is just one example of how I foresee my communities and relationships can and will change after college. I intend to seek out the kind of people out there in the world that I have found here on the Hilltop. Whether they are a part of a group or unique individuals that I am drawn towards, I hope I will be able to find them.

Clara Gustafson is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. She is former Georgetown University Student Association president.

In the past four years, Georgetown has given us more than we could have imagined. We’ve learned the intricacies of electoral politics and corporate finance, sure, but more importantly, we’ve discovered friends, and we’ve discovered ourselves. The gifts that this university has given us will be paid forward in time when we positively impact the world, when we send our own kids to Georgetown or even when we give up our time to interview future Hoyas. But over the past semester, as I’ve been thinking back on my time here, I’ve realized that there’s one gift that Georgetown selflessly grants its graduates. Besides our diplomas, what this university has really given us is a place where we’ll be forever young, a place where we’ll be forever 22 years old, full of energy, full of optimism and full of life.
My own GAAP weekend in April 2009, which seems like a million years ago, was a day full of reflection for the Hoyas already on campus; it was Georgetown Day. I remember sitting in Gaston Hall listening to speeches given by seniors, professors and administrators about how great Georgetown was, how it was a place where we could pursue our passions.
To a large extent, the experience in Gaston was the reason that I came to Georgetown. I wanted to be a part of something bigger, and I wanted to belong to a place that bettered everyone. Looking back more than four years later, a different conversation from that day comes to mind. While the speeches in Gaston were memorable, the most vivid memory I have is of a simple conversation I had on Copley Lawn. I was walking with a friend from high school when we were casually stopped by some seniors. They began to pelt us with questions about how we liked Georgetown, if we planned to come and if there was anything they could do to show us a good time. After the initial disappointment that we didn’t yet look like college kids — it must have been the nametags and lack of a tank top on Georgetown Day that gave us away — we told him that we loved it and that we were coming. “Embrace every day,” one of them said. “Make every day worthwhile. You’re only young once.” Those words meant nothing to me then. Sure, you’re only young once, but I still have a lot of youth left, I thought.
Now, as sobering a thought as it is, my youth is essentially gone. It’s time to grow up. And while Georgetown has prepared us for this moment since New Student Convocation, it’s now time to embrace the next chapter in our lives. Some of us are staying in Washington D.C., some are moving to Alaska and some are even going to Kabul. Some of us might walk out of the front gates on May 18 and not walk back ever again. But we’re ready. We’re ready for our next challenges because of Georgetown.
While we’re armed with a degree, hopefully a job and an uncanny ability to quickly wash The Tombs’ stamp off of our hand before we meet someone important, what we’re really taking away from our little bubble in the corner of the District are memories. I’ll forever be 19 during Snowpocalypse. I’ll forever be 20 in the memory of moving into 1320 35th St. And we’ll forever be 22 when we put on the cap and gown and walk across that stage.
Years from now, when we visit our childhood homes, we’ll be immediately transported back to that first catch we had with our dads or the first time that we pulled out of the driveway with no one else in the car. At that house, in that yard, we’re forever young. I’m going to look at Georgetown like that. This is the other place I grew up; this is the place where I really found out not only who I was but who I wanted to be. From now on, I’ll be a little bit older every time I visit the Hilltop, a little more displaced from my youth. But that’s why I’m so grateful for this gift. In our memories of this place, we’ll always be young. We’ll always have our youth. We’ll always have Georgetown.

John Morris is a senior in the College. He is former chairman of the board of directors of Students of Georgetown, Inc. 

It is a good thing that our Georgetown experience is not entirely defined by other students. I mean no offense to the 18- to 22-year-old age demographic, but I certainly can’t imagine a university reigned by students — we change too rapidly. I have lost myself, discovered myself and then confused myself over my four years. I’ve turned inward, outward and upward. Thank goodness I am not in charge here.
In this vein, I would like to take a moment in this time of transition to thank those who are in charge. I’d like to thank those who are older than 22, who create permanence at a university that, if left to us students, would otherwise be in constant upheaval. We have been student leaders at times in our four years, but mostly we have been led, guided and supported by others as we have matured. Thank you to those who have participated in that process. Thank you to those who create new knowledge for us to learn, open opportunities for us to pursue, cast a vision for the future of Georgetown and especially to those who simply help our university operate.
Thank you to the professors who invest years or even careers here. Thank you for the new discoveries you make in your respective fields. Thank you for the ways you adapt teaching to modern times, and thank you for, when you think it more appropriate, staying consistent and conservative in certain values and practices. Thank you for taking us seriously as we passed through your classes, and, even more so, thank you for taking your research seriously. Your new questions and ideas in the fields of ethics, governance, migration and literature — to name a few — have pushed me to consider my academics and career from new angles. We graduate in less time than it takes you to contemplate academic questions from all angles and certainly before you come to conclusions or publish. Thank you for staying and creating knowledge, which we have hopefully absorbed.
Thank you to the program staff who permeate so many aspects of student life, from the Center for Multicultural Equity &' Access, the Center for Social Justice and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor to Residential Life and Campus Ministry. Your support has defined our Georgetown experience. You have given us the space to lead and innovate and grow and make small corners of campus our own. I know that I have felt empowered by the programs that allowed me to expand my presence on campus, as I have tried to bring my own ideas to reality. Yet the staff and directors have also prevented me from running after foolish ideas and instead forced me to adopt a degree of realism. They have created opportunities and at the same time guided me as I pursue them.
Thank you to the administration for thinking in the long term. That vision is nearly impossible for us students, who struggle to imagine the coming year, yet you alone develop and implement 10-year strategic plans. Thank you for cultivating relationships in the city and the world that help Georgetown endure, grow and flourish. I will not be here to see how the long term develops, but I take comfort in knowing that my experience at Georgetown has been influenced and formed by visionaries from many years ago
Finally, thank you to the staff that make the details of campus run smoothly. Thank you for ensuring that we have food, tolerating — and even cleaning — our messes, fixing pipes, shovelling snow and — most of all — planting those beautiful spring flowers. I am not sure if I can ever explain to José, a groundskeeper in the Village A area, how much his friendly face has made me feel at home here since we first met my freshman year. I don’t know if I have fully expressed my gratitude to the workers at Leo’s who welcome me with good humor to my 7 a.m. breakfast.
Right now we are leaving, but someday in some place might be the ones who stay. We will be the ones who invest with enough consistency to create knowledge, opportunities or a long-term vision or who simply help our workplace run smoothly. We will one day be those who mentor the interns or the newest employees. We are not yet the ones who stay, but in the meantime, with great humility, we should thank those who do so here. Thank you to the faculty and staff of Georgetown University — thank you for staying.

Joanna Foote is a senior in the School of Foreign Service. She is coordinator of the Kalmanovitz Initiative’s Day Laborer Exchange.

I lived in the purple cluster on the eighth floor of Harbin Hall my freshman year. For those who are unfamiliar with Harbin’s layout, each floor is made up of three clusters of eight rooms surrounding a communal bathroom. My friends have always been quick to point out that I technically lived in a room just outside the cluster, which we affectionately referred to as the cluster’s Puerto Rico. Harbin was intentionally designed to create a sense of community among the individuals living in a cluster, an intention that was highly successful in what is now my group of friends.
On our first night in the cluster, we all met in the common room for an impromptu game of poker. It was one of those awkward freshman gatherings going on across campus. We knew little about each other, but we were forced to socialize purely because the housing office had randomly assigned us as neighbors. We went around and did the usual Georgetown introductions of name, school and hometown, and it soon became apparent that we came from a diverse set of backgrounds and had many different interests. On paper, it didn’t make much sense for us to become close friends, but somehow, most of us have stuck together.
Over the course of freshman year, our cluster shared experiences that have become some of my fondest memories. We coordinated trips to Leo’s, explored various extracurricular activities and moved like a mob around the neighborhood, searching for upperclassmen willing to let 10 guys into their parties. We even managed to survive being locked in our dorm with each other for a whole week during Snowpocalypse. And when cabin fever became too much to handle, we walked all the way to Verizon Center in the storm to watch Georgetown beat Villanova.
As our first year came to an end, we were shuffled around campus into various dorms. Although we couldn’t see each other as often as before, everyone stayed in contact and continued to meet up regularly. While most of us began finding corners of campus where we wanted to focus our time, it was still nice to have a network of friends from outside classes and organizations.
Skipping forward to senior year, most of us still live together in a number of different houses. Although we rarely all get together at the same time anymore, our social circles frequently collide. The time that we spent together transitioning into college will always be an important chapter in our lives. We provided support during each others’ failures and celebrated each other’s victories. From dealing with family issues to managing the rigor of college-level academics, we helped one another make Georgetown feel like home. My clustermates inspired me to take chances, try new things and discover who I want to be in this world. They are the reason I joined the crew team, got involved in Protestant ministry, became a tour guide, passed accounting, quit the crew team and became a Carroll Fellow. Without them, I would have had a far less meaningful Georgetown experience.
I have learned a considerable amount through coursework and extracurriculars over the past four years, but I have grown the most through my relationships with friends. My brothers in the purple cluster have challenged my beliefs and helped me to better understand the value of my time on the Hilltop. I feel incredibly privileged to have known each and every one of them. Looking back at that awkward first night in the common room, I never would have expected that Greyson, Stelios, Alex, Kieran, Matty P., Mike D., Craig, Dan, James, Boston Mike, Colin, Nate and Schroth would become some of my best friends.

Michael Crouch is a senior in the McDonough School of Business and former program manager of h.innovation. 

Senior Week is keg parties and champagne brunches, last lectures and meeting alumni, a picnic and Senior Ball. Senior Week is my last service to my friends, peers and all seniors as a class and campus community. Senior Week is the time to hand my reins as Senior Class Committee Chairman and New South RHO Manager to the next class. Senior Week is the capstone that marks the end of our time on the Hilltop. I know what Senior Week is, but I still can’t believe it’s finally here.
I started out at Georgetown as an uninvolved freshman. I thought about joining a few organizations but passed up the opportunities in favor of working for residence life. That decision defined my first three years here which were spent in housing: two summers in the main office, two years as a special assistant in another office, a year as an RHO assistant and two more as a manager. Throughout my junior and sophomore years, I was working three jobs and around 50 hours a week. The pay was great, classes clearly came second and I still wasn’t involved in anything else on campus.
Don’t get me wrong — there were some major upsides to this lifestyle. I had great relationships with administrators around campus, I understood how the bureaucracy worked and who to talk to — let’s be real, that’s crucial on this campus, right? And the RHOs have been my family and my best friends. You couldn’t find a more awesome and varied set of people than at my RHO in New South this year. And I couldn’t be happier and more proud as one of them takes the lead in Village C next year.
But at the end of junior year, on a whim, I applied for Senior Class Committee Chairman. That changed everything, and it’s made all the difference in how I’ll view my alma mater. I’ve worked alongside the most amazing board, spent nights serving at keg parties, helped organize Georgetown Day 2013 and just connected with Georgetown. I’ve sat on advisory boards, worked with neighbors and administrators to forge a new community partnership and given my last semester to the Hilltop helping out in any way I could. I’ve had the opportunity to meet many seniors, university administrators, neighbors and staff that have helped me discover what I truly love about the Hilltop: our community.
To this day, I’m shocked at how little I knew about where I had lived and worked the last three years before joining SCC. I try to impress on every freshman I meet how important getting involved on campus can be. Student life is one of the biggest opportunities to engage with and fall in love with Georgetown. Trust me, I didn’t engage at all for three years, and I’m telling you: This is it.
As I hugged all my RHOmies — yes, that’s a thing — goodbye, I thought of how I’ll feel the night of Senior Ball. It’s an event I’ve worked toward for a year of my life. My SCC board and I have lived, breathed, fundraised — and to be honest — drank our way to this night, with the knowledge that it will be our penultimate Georgetown experience. It’s my last opportunity to give back to a place that has been a real home for me. Between the day I arrived as a freshman until the end of junior year, I basically never left Georgetown for more time than winter break. In case that isn’t impressive enough, my time at Georgetown is also the longest I’ve ever lived in one place.
All of this is personal reflection and life story is just my way of showing how much Georgetown means to me, as I’m sure it means as much — or more — to you. It’s a home, a family, a party, a class, a relationship, a paper, a house, an SCC Board, an RHO and a key. We’re connected as a Class of 2013 and as Hoyas for the rest of our lives. And to the Class of 2017 just coming in, you couldn’t have picked a better time to join the Hilltop.

Justin Mercer is a senior in the College, chairman of the Senior Class Committee and “Housing Boy Wonder.”

 I have only one picture of myself alone taped above my desk. In it I’m no older than four years old and sporting the quintessential ’90s androgynous bull-cut. I’m smiling blissfully and more than likely wondering where my mom had hidden my Batman action figures so that she could keep me still long enough to take the picture. And although there are countless numbers of precious pictures like this one stashed away in my family’s basement — my parents always told me I was cuter than the Olsen twins — this one is particularly special to me. On top of that timeless bull-cut and unusually large 4-year-old head lies my first ever piece of Georgetown paraphernalia: my very own Hoya hat.
How did I get a Georgetown hat as a 4-year-old, you might ask? The answer is that I am a legacy. My parents met and — like all true Georgetown romances — fell in love at a keg party. My great-uncle has his own plaque on The Tombs’ bar, and my oldest brother still, almost literally, bleeds Hoya blue. Yet, for the past four years, I have generally kept this legacy information to myself. At a school like Georgetown, the term “legacy” comes with innumerable assumptions: “My parents bought my way in,” “I’m not quite as smart as all the other high school valedictorians here.” “I only came here because it was expected of me.”
Most of these, if not all, are entirely untrue. I don’t know if you’ve looked into the statistics recently, but it would take a pretty hefty bit of money to buy your way in to Georgetown. I worked pretty hard in high school for my 4.0 GPA and my parents were far from pressuring me into coming here. In fact, my parents spent so much time insisting that there was absolutely no pressure to come to Georgetown that they almost discouraged it.
But despite all this, my relationship with Georgetown has been contentious. With so much of a history preceding me, I had — I thought — a very clear understanding of what my life here was supposed to be like. I would attend every home basketball game I could, never miss Midnight Madness and unquestionably participate in 99 Days. Yet, as I settled into my own niche here, met the people I would call my best friends and joined the clubs that sparked my interests, it didn’t pan out this way. I found a different rhythm and settled in comfortably with the “hipster” crowd. But my predisposed assumptions of Georgetown still nagged me. Why don’t I have more of a need to be at the basketball games? Will I really not experience everything if I don’t do 99 Days? I didn’t avoid these traditions in order to be reactionary or “different.” I wasn’t stubbornly resisting them. The truth is I felt unappreciative. Here I am in the middle of our capital, with every opportunity given to me and fortunate enough to be at school envied by so many, and yet I couldn’t give Georgetown what I thought I was supposed to. I couldn’t bring myself to eat, sleep and breathe our basketball team or be dedicated enough to spend $200 or more at The Tombs in three months’ time; as an employee of the fine establishment, I insist on at least breaking even. Despite how close I am with my family, I know that if we were all students here at the same time we would not be at the same parties or part of the same clubs. And I let this weigh on me.
But here I am now, the day before graduation, and I know that my worries were unfounded. Not everyone I have met here is my best friend, and I have disagreed with many of them. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter, because every person I don’t agree with, I learn from. For every person I don’t call my friend, I count two more my best friends. You see, that’s the most beautiful thing I learned about Georgetown: For all the lists it’s been put on, for all the stereotypes it carries, if you look hard enough, there’s someone, something or some place at Georgetown for everyone.
Meagan Kelly is a senior in the College. She is former photo editor of The Hoya.