Illustration by Chiara Vercesi

Hanging on a wall outside of ’s office is an engraved wooden plaque with a quote from the Irish poet, playwright and author Samuel Beckett, that reads:

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Corcoran, an advising dean in the șŁœÇÂÛÌł of Arts & Sciences, made the plaque in the Maker Hub using a laser cutter, as part of her one-credit course for seniors, Defining Ourselves: Failure as Opportunity, in collaboration with . The quote acts as a reminder to Corcoran and encapsulates what she wants her students to take away from the course as they prepare for life after Georgetown. 

“We are neither defined solely by either our failures or successes,” Corcoran said. “So much of the class was an exploration of getting out of the success-failure binary and thinking of ourselves not just as a cumulative resume.”

The course is just one of several resources at Georgetown University that includes șŁœÇÂÛÌł staff and faculty members that help students cope with setbacks, tackle their relationship with perfectionism and unpack their perceptions of failure.

, a professor of psychology and the șŁœÇÂÛÌłâ€™s vice dean for faculty affairs, teaches a course, , with , the university’s vice president for student affairs, that addresses themes like perfectionism, authenticity and conflict. , who helps run the șŁœÇÂÛÌłâ€™s First Fellows Program for first-generation students, also integrates discussions and assignments about “productive failure” into her classes to normalize failure as part of the learning process. 

“If you have your mind set on a goal, you’re eventually going to get there,” Harris said. “It might not always look like how you initially planned it, but success looks different for everybody, and you’re going to get there.”

Failure as Opportunity

When Corcoran joined Georgetown in 2018, she noticed that the prospect of failure often immobilized her students. 

They were familiar and comfortable with success and achievement, Corcoran said, but lacked skills to thrive in the face of challenging obstacles or unexpected detours. Around that time, Corcoran read a New York Times article titled, that discussed how universities were developing programs to help high achievers cope with basic setbacks like not getting the room assignment they wanted or being rejected by clubs.

With that in mind, the first Failure as Opportunity course launched in the fall of 2024.

“Our students at Georgetown are incredibly driven,” Corcoran said. “We as faculty need to show them failure is not just an inevitable part of life, but an opportunity to pivot and be introspective about that transformative moment.”

In the course, which is available to any Georgetown undergraduate, students learn about famous failures from entrepreneurs, researchers, politicians, artists and other leading world figures. They discuss their own failures, and by doing so, it normalizes the experience and reality that no one, no matter how it seems from the outside, is perfect or has gone through life without experiencing disappointments. 

Corcoran’s course helped Vaughan Anoa’i (C’26) realize that it’s okay for things to not go according to plan.

The American studies major is a self-described “consummate perfectionist,” someone accustomed to excelling in academics and sports. She came to Georgetown as a standout volleyball player, and started her own charitable organization, , when she was in high school, to help make volleyball clubs more inclusive and accessible. 

Anoa’i often struggled to slow down or accept mistakes, especially in academic settings.

“Even throughout my time in high school, we’re constantly praised for continuing to push ourselves past the point of burnout,” she said. “I think in this day and age, it’s not sustainable.”

The course also helped validate many of the feelings Anoa’i had heading into her senior year, she said. This past summer, she decided that she did not want to go straight to law school after graduation, as Anoa’i had originally planned. And in the fall, she stepped away from the women’s varsity volleyball team, a decision she said she made in part because the sport “wasn’t something that I needed to hold on to anymore.”

“This class has allowed me to reflect that sometimes it’s okay for plans and expectations to change, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m behind in my journey,” Anoa’i said.

Jefferson Gonzalez-Flores (C’26), another student in the class, said he grew up viewing the word, “failure,” as a definitive end point. Failing meant that he wasn’t cut out for something.

Now, failure or the act of failing to him is a “necessary mechanism for growth and self-definition,” said Gonzalez-Flores, a government major who is minoring in psychology. “Setbacks are not indictments of my character, but just another obstacle that can help redefine my plan and reveal my true capabilities.”

As he prepares to leave Georgetown and start his job as an investment banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York City, Gonzalez-Flores plans to use the lessons from the course’s assignments and guest speakers to see his future opportunities with a sense of curiosity and opportunity, rather than fear. 

“Everyone has a uniquely distinct and beautiful journey that they must go through,” he said. “But at the end of the day If you have patience with your own progress and feel empathy toward the struggles of others, anything is possible.”

Productive Failure

Harris, who leads the First Fellows Program, feels that students at Georgetown are really afraid to fail. Any grade below an A can sometimes elicit panic, she said. 

In that sense, Harris said, the first-generation students she teaches are not all that different from continuing-generation students. The First Fellows Program, which launched in the fall of 2024, is a cohort-based, holistic program that provides first-generation students in the șŁœÇÂÛÌł of Arts & Sciences with critical academic resources, faculty mentors, financial support and a community of peers. 

“Everybody’s hyper focused on GPA,” Harris said. “We want to unpack that perception that GPA equals worth.”

When she was in her doctorate program at George Mason University, one of Harris’ professors assigned a project called, “productive failure.” The students had to pick something from their final project that semester that did not work well and reflect on it. 

“That was the first time that I ever really had a professor confront failure head on or make us think about it proactively,” Harris said.

This spring, the First Fellows students did something similar. Harris placed them in accountability groups based on their post-graduation plans and asked the students to address the ways that they struggled. 

Throughout the semester, Rylie Hannon (C’27) stayed connected with her group through regular check-ins. She and her classmates, Hannon said, quickly realized they were all facing similar struggles. 

“That shared experience helped us create realistic plans and support each other in a meaningful way,” said Hannon, a government major with a minor in law, justice and society. “I think creating space to talk openly about failure, especially at Georgetown, is incredibly valuable. It’s easy to get caught up in presenting success, whether through LinkedIn or other ways, but these honest conversations reminded me that many of us are navigating the same challenges.”

In her presentation, Hannon said that this year, her goals were to get ahead on her LSAT preparation and law school planning and improve her GPA. Those goals, she said, took much longer than expected. For the assignment, Hannon instead decided to focus on her successes from the year.

“For me, that has been my experience living at and rediscovering my love for learning and for Georgetown,” she said. “Being able to celebrate each other’s growth while also acknowledging setbacks is what I value most about First Fellows. It was really special to reflect on both the challenges and accomplishments of the year.”

Harris, for her part, wants to be intentional about modeling and sharing her own failures. She told her students that once, when she didn’t get a job she thought she would get, she went home for a week and cried.

“I think sharing my own failures in hopes of normalizing it to show that the people in power or the people in the head of the classroom experience it too,” Harris said. “Everyone has their own struggles.”

Confronting Perfection

Woolard and Daugherty, who co-teach the Confront Perfection course, like to introduce themselves to the students by reading their resumes. 

“We tend to start by being ridiculously perfect,” Daugherty said. “We wear suits, and we read three pages of how fabulous we are.”

Then, they rip up the resumes, and share who they really are.

The two are friends. When Daugherty joined Georgetown in 2023, “everything was going wrong for me,” she said. She contracted COVID-19 twice and had a concussion. Woolard was her first friend on campus. Instead of giving just their “Georgetown intro,” Woolard said, they talk about their interests and share how they’re feeling that day. 

“We try to get folks to settle into being authentic,” Woolard said.

The one-credit course, first launched in the Spring 2024 semester, is a partnership between the șŁœÇÂÛÌł and the and is open to all Georgetown students. Some take it for credit, but it’s not required. The program, which consists of five sessions throughout the semester, is designed to bring together undergraduate and graduate students in a space where they can learn skills that will help them develop into caring leaders. 

“We take concepts of vulnerability, conflict, tension and connection and really unpack them and what they mean to allow students to make their own meaning from them,” Daugherty said. “And we do that by blowing up perfect people.”

The course is inspired by the Hoyas Connected project in the șŁœÇÂÛÌłâ€™s Department of Psychology and supported by a gift from the . That initiative began at Georgetown in the Fall 2023 semester and is based on the Connection Project, an empirically-based program established at the University of Virginia, which was designed to help foster belonging and connection, said Woolard, a professor of psychology. 

Similarly, Confronting Perfection is a place where students can practice their skills in dialogue and reflection. As a senior, Ellie-Rose Wallach (C’26) wanted to take a small, seminar-style course where she could talk to people and exchange perspectives. 

“It’s been really helpful and nice and a good way for me to just meet people and engage in the community here at Georgetown in a different way,” said Wallach, an English major who is minoring in psychology. 

One of the learning goals for the students is to develop a mindset that views failure as part of the growth process. 

Harry Morelli (C’27), an English major and film and media studies minor, said he signed up for the course because he wanted to better understand the concept of perfection. 

“I think at Georgetown, there is this sort of expectation of perfection,” he said. “I think the conversational discussion aspects of the class made me sort of realize that I’m not the only person going through this, and that it’s sort of this false image that everybody at Georgetown seems to project. We’re all sharing the same internal thoughts about perfection.”

Sarah Shahine (C’29) said listening to the guest speakers, which included Georgetown University leaders and alums, reinforced to her that everyone has insecurities, including people who are highly accomplished. 

“I think a huge part of the class has been building community,” said Shahine, who is majoring in environment and sustainability. 

Post-graduate success, Daugherty said, is not about being perfect or being the smartest. It’s about being humble and not knowing all the answers. 

“Our Jesuit institutions are invested in a hope-filled future,” she said. “They don’t impose answers upon youth. They allow for formation with youth.”

By sunset on a chilly and overcast Friday evening in late February, the students in the had walked more than 10,000 steps and gained hours worth of knowledge. They spent the day touring businesses in the DC area and engaging with local industry and social impact leaders for their annual DC Day trip. 

This year, the students — 16 of the 19 total in the program — visited Graham Holdings Company, where CEO (B’04) shared stories about his business career; NPR, where students heard from arts and culture writers and editors and NPR Music producers; JosĂ© AndrĂ©s Group, where chefs and operations leaders demonstrated their inspirations at the test kitchen; and Lafayette Square, where founder and CEO of the private credit firm, (B’97), gave an impassioned speech about “leaving the system better than you found it.” 

For lunch, students heard from Kathleen McCabe (C’94), a partner in the strategic advisory group at PJT Partners and former , who emphasized the importance of a liberal arts degree in the business world.

These visits can serve as networking opportunities. But, more importantly, they can help shape career paths and interests. DC Day is the third of these trips that students in the Baker Scholars Program take each year, following a trip to New York City earlier in the spring semester and a visit to a rotating city each fall.

“DC Day, as well as the other trips that Baker Scholars undertake, expose the students to a wide variety of business opportunities as well as different locations,” said (C’92, G’97, G’07), the decanal representative to the program. “This is an incredibly valuable process not necessarily for the short-term but has an impact long-term in particular as students make transitions in their careers. Many of these meetings also contain really important life advice that is relevant and applicable at any time.”

A Bird’s Eye View

The Baker Scholars Program consists of undergraduate students in the șŁœÇÂÛÌł of Arts & Sciences who are interested in business and have a commitment to service, Zimmers said. Selection for the program takes place in the spring of a student’s sophomore year.

“Being a Baker is to be a Baker for life,” said Kaitlin Martin (C’26), a political economy major who is minoring in Spanish and business studies. “You come into this program trying to learn about yourself and different industries, but also to give back to your community and future students within the program.”

During events like the DC Day trip, Baker Scholars students gain exclusive access to business executives and leaders. These individuals can provide a “bird’s eye view” on the path they took to the top of their industries, said Josh Dawit (C’26), who is majoring in government and minoring in sociology. 

“In my experience, when talking to people that are much further into their career, they’re a lot more candid about failures and setbacks that they’ve had because they’re not like recent grads that are still trying to put up that image of perfection for their next employer,” Dawit said. “Seeing those people talk very candidly about those things and still be in the positions that they are is not only reassuring but also very tangibly helpful.”

At the visit to Graham Holdings Company, O’Shaughnessy shared stories from his time as a product manager at America Online — “AOL at the time was like Google,” he said — and as the co-founder and CEO of LivingSocial, a local e-commerce company that, at its peak, was valued at multiple billions of dollars and had thousands of employees. 

He joined Graham Holdings Company in 2014 and was named president and CEO in 2015. The holding company’s portfolio Kaplan, Inc., a global leader in educational services; Framebridge, a custom framing service company; Slate, a daily online magazine; and Clyde’s Restaurant Group, the owner and operator of The Tombs. 

“There are a lot of different ways to be successful,” O’Shaughnessy told the students.

Charlie Berger (C’27), a political economy major who is minoring in philosophy, said he was inspired by the meeting and learning more about the historical legacy of Graham Holdings. 

“That was amazingly informative for me,” he said. “The relationships that they are looking to build with their portfolio are not ones of menacing dominance 
 but are more like part of a family. I think having that really long-term approach to investing is what a lot of great investors say is most important.”

Follow Your Passions

Everything about music interests Sofia Gershanik (C’27).

She is passionate about singing, songwriting, musical theater and the intersection of business and music. At Georgetown, she is an American musical cultures major with a Spanish and psychology double minor. After graduation, Gershanik wants to work with musical artists.

The visit to NPR felt tailored for her and reinforced in her mind the importance of liberal arts skills.

“It really just makes me see how important connection is, and that’s something that I focus on a lot in music,” Gershanik said. “Music is not only about expression but human connection and being able to speak or sing or resonate with somebody else in some way.”

As part of the tour of the broadcasting organization’s headquarters, students got to see where Tiny Desk concerts are filmed. After the tour, students heard from Bob Mondello, an arts critic; Ciera Crawford, the chief culture editor on the Culture Desk; Mitra I. Arthur, a producer for NPR Music; Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez, an audio engineer; and Josh Newell, the technical director for NPR Music.

For Gershanik, the biggest takeaway was the joy and care that each person brought to their role.

“Passion is a really big thing,” she said. “I think a lot of times, when talking to business professionals in any industry, you get the sense of like, ‘This is the job they do.’ This is how they do it, and then they go home and they do what they like. But at NPR 
 you bring your passion to your work. They can’t do their work without feeling excited about it.”

‘New Ways and New Ideas’

All of the fondest memories for Berger, a junior in the Baker Scholars Program, revolves around food and conversations with people. His “true dream job” would be to one day start a restaurant group, he said. 

Visiting JosĂ© AndrĂ©s Group reaffirmed those interests. 

“It was important for me to go there and see what is arguably one of the most successful restaurant groups,” Berger said.

During the visit at JosĂ© AndrĂ©s Group’s corporate office, students lined up in front of the test kitchen and heard from Hector Contreras, the former research and development chef, Tammy Saunders, the research and development pastry chef and Alan Grublauskas, the director of operations for JosĂ© AndrĂ©s Group in DC.

The R&D team explained how they come up with different culinary concepts and served the students several samples, including a “Philly cheesesteak” , one of the signature items at The Bazaar by JosĂ© AndrĂ©s: a puffy pita filled with creamy white cheddar espuma foam and topped with onion jam and wagyu tenderloin. The R&D team also talked about the .

“We’re finding new ways and new ideas,” Saunders said.

Like Berger, Arnoldo Sandoval Garcia (C’26) found the conversation about the restaurant business and the constant need for reinvention to be illuminating. He has experience working with Rogers & Sons Produce Inc., a produce distribution company in the San Antonio Wholesale Produce Market, and recently accepted a job as a production supervisor for Ready Foods, a family-owned food manufacturer based in Colorado.

“It’s a very low chance that a person actually goes to visit your restaurant twice,” said Sandoval Garcia, an American studies major. “If they visit your restaurant three or four times, you have a client for life. So, how do you create those experiences for your clients to keep on coming back to your restaurant?”

The conversation was helpful even for those, like Gershanik, who aren’t interested in entering the food and restaurant business. 

“If I need to apply any of those skills to a future career, whether that be in music or not, I can now work on developing them,” she said. “I have the context to learn from.”

Anything Is Possible

Dwin, the CEO of Lafayette Square, a private credit firm lending capital to growing middle market companies in working-class places, began his speech to the students with a declaration: “What you do with your money and power is your choice.” 

He implored the students to have an agenda, while adding that it’s okay if that evolves. Spend time understanding economic systems, and then leave them better than you found it, Dwin encouraged.

Dwin, who began his career as a trader with Goldman Sachs in New York and London, believes that working-class people and places are often ignored by private credit. Lafayette Square aims to support 100,000 working-class jobs, invest 50% of capital and curate benefits for 50% of its portfolio companies by 2030. 

“I’ve never felt more alive than in the presence of ethical human beings,” he said. 

Dwin’s speech left an impact on TJ Johnson (C’27), an economics major and junior in the Baker Scholars Program, crystallizing his belief that studying liberal arts is important to becoming a strong business leader. 

“I think that going to these visits really shows that anything is possible,” Johnson said. “You can really follow your passions in a very unstructured way, especially during our time being young, and make a very major impact by just following your heart.”

During the trip, the group spent a few days at the (NCTC), a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conference and training center, met with local politicians, artists, environmentalists and nonprofit leaders and toured the historic homes of local residents. 

“The goal of the whole trip and this experience was to provide our students with avenues to learn from different individuals and different sectors of the social impact space directly by visiting with them in their own spaces and to see the work that’s going on in Shepherdstown,” said Thom Chiarolanzio, the senior associate dean in the șŁœÇÂÛÌł who helped launch SRN in 2019.

Mary Fortuna (C’89), a member of the SRN Board of Advisors who lives in Shepherdstown, proposed the idea of bringing students to the town last spring, and was instrumental in organizing the trip’s itinerary and lineup of speakers that included the .

Fortuna is an alumna of the șŁœÇÂÛÌłâ€™s , which influenced SRN’s cohort and mentorship-based model. SRN has around 30 total students and is open to rising șŁœÇÂÛÌł sophomores, juniors and seniors. Fortuna wanted to use the trip to introduce students to Shepherdstown and give them opportunities for personal connections with its leaders.

“I wanted the students to learn from their personal anecdotes — what’s been difficult, the pivots they’ve made and their successes and failures,” Fortuna said.

Meaningful Outdoor Experiences

When Daisy Fynewever (C’26) first arrived at Georgetown, she felt she needed to save the world.

But her time on the Hilltop and with SRN has opened her eyes to the possibility of making a difference in smaller communities and at the grassroots level. The trip to Shepherdstown reinforced that in her mind, said Fynewever, who is double majoring in environmental biology and justice and peace studies with a minor in Spanish. 

“I think we’re used to hearing about national and international organizations, so seeing the type of changes that can be made in a small community through a tight knit network of people was really interesting and super inspiring,” she said.  

One speaker that Fynewever connected with in particular was , the executive director of the Potomac Valley Audubon Society.

During her talk, which took place during a morning hike through the , Alexander spoke about how meaningful childhood experiences in the outdoors often leads to people caring about the natural world as an adult. She helps create those opportunities through events like youth day camps.

“I’ve seen so many kids grow up through our programs and they’re now environmental lawyers, they work for Habitat for Humanity, just so many incredible stories of how these campers have grown up to do good work,” she said.

Over the summer, Fynewever worked for , the senior scientist for West Virginia Rivers, a nonprofit organization, and speaker for the SRN trip. In her internship, which was supported by an SRN stipend, Fynewever worked on a research project exploring the link between ambient water quality and cancer incidents. 

Hitt, a tenth-generation West Virginian and former research fish biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, shared lessons he learned from his career in the federal government and nonprofit space. 

He asked students to think of their future careers by drawing a Venn diagram that includes three circles: 1) What are you good at? 2) What does the world need? 3) What brings you joy?

“What you’re looking for is, where is that overlap? That will guide your next steps,” Hitt said.

The students also heard from Maria Parisi, a who recently retired from NCTC.

“It was super interesting to see how each of the speakers had a different perspective on the best way to make a difference and the best way to do social impact work,” Fynewever said. “And I think that we need all of those perspectives to build the future that we want to see.”

Preserving Arts and History

For Cici Sprouse (C’26), the trip spotlighted the importance of the arts and historic preservation for social impact work. Shepherdstown, , is known for its historic architecture and vibrant arts scene.

“It was really, really cool to see how arts and culture were huge in creating this sense of identity and also instilling a sense of civic duty,” said Sprouse, a justice and peace studies major who is minoring in Spanish and government.

, the festival director of the American Conservation Film Festival, shared with the group that she accepted her job in part because of the ability for “stories to change hearts and minds.” As an example, the students watched a screening of , one of the films shown at the festival this March. The documentary features Zambian attorney (L’13) and follows journalists as they investigate the dire environmental consequences of foreign governments and private investors seizing food and water resources around the world.

“The Grab was extremely impactful, because it bridged the social impact lens and environmental conservation lens that we were exploring on this trip,” said Madison Ross (C’27), a government major who is minoring in .

Students also met , the artistic director for the Contemporary American Theater Festival. The mission of the festival is to produce and develop with a vision of being the ultimate theater experience for artists and audiences. 

In her talk, McKowen highlighted the beneficial impact of arts on someone’s health and wellness and the festival’s commitment to its social values and the local economic impact. 

Eliana Mlawski (C’26), a government and Spanish double major pursuing a minor in , found McKowen’s session particularly inspiring for emphasizing the value of the arts in Shepherdstown.

“The importance of local organizing and action is huge, and sometimes can be forgotten, but I think this trip was a really fun way to deep dive to see that impact,” she said.

Social impact can mean preserving history, as well.

When the students arrived at O’Hurley’s General Store, a group of musicians treated them to a , held every Thursday night year-round. The musicians sat in a circle and played various instruments, including the guitar, harp, banjo, mandolin and violin. These jam sessions have continued for , preserving a piece of Shepherdstown that has been passed down for generations. 

“It might not seem like it is directly related to social impact upon first glance,” Ross said. “But I think the preservation of artistic culture is so important to maintain that community. It was so cool to see that they were still doing it.”

On the final day, students went on a tour of the Historic Shepherdstown Museum located in , led in part by John Kavaliunas (F’68, G’73), visited residents Pia Peltola and Andy Singletary at their re-imagined loft-style home in the , explored the with owners Adam Thomas and Shannon Thomas and learned about the by Rod Glover and Tom Mayes.  

The group also spoke with the co-owner of the Shepherdstown Opera House, Steve Pearson (MBA’92), who completed a full rehabilitation of the structure in 2023. Local artist and professor of art at Shepherd University, , gave a public art demonstration, and the students wrapped up the weekend with a walking tour of Shepherdstown with , an associate professor of history at Shepherd University.  

“The word that really came to mind for me was civic duty,” Sprouse said. “Every person that we talked to felt this responsibility to improve their community in the way that they saw that they could.”

Socially Responsible Careers

The Shepherdstown trip broadened the perspective on socially responsible careers for the students.

“SRN has kind of taught me that being mission driven in your career doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to work at a nonprofit,” Sprouse said.

“I think that the entire trip as a whole gave me a wider overview of what having a socially impactful life looks like and also the type of people that care about social impact work,” said Ashland Ross (C’28), who is majoring in the and minoring in environment and sustainability. 

Ross is interested in doing work in the environmental justice space with the intention of going to law school after graduation. Being on the trip provided her with a sense of community with other people who are passionate about social impact work and related career paths, she said.

Life as a college student can be exceptionally busy, Mlawski said, with students being pulled in multiple directions. The trip, therefore, allowed them to pause and listen to people who found a fulfilling career by following their passions, she said. 

“I’m pursuing international environmental work, which can feel really challenging sometimes,” Mlawski said. “So understanding how other people have navigated their own careers to make it work is invaluable.”

(Top photo courtesy of the West Virginia Department of Tourism)

Illustration by Gwen Keraval

When Pope Paul VI spoke these words in Stockholm as part of his World Day of Peace message in 1972, he echoed a timeless truth: That justice begets peace. That principle guided the naming of Georgetown’s major, Justice and Peace Studies, which launched in the fall of 2014. A decade later, JUPS is not just the șŁœÇÂÛÌłâ€™s most popular interdisciplinary major — it’s a movement.

“It’s education as a catalyst for change,” said Noa Offman (C’25), who was named a Rhodes Scholar. “So many of my peers are using these courses to pursue careers in the area of justice and reform they care most about.”

For 10 years, JUPS has empowered students to confront injustice in all its forms — through policy, advocacy, education and grassroots organizing. The program’s strength lies in its understanding that today’s complex challenges demand collaboration across disciplines and communities. That’s why JUPS students are tackling issues ranging from criminal justice reform to sustainability, and going on to careers in law, health care, public service and beyond.

As the program enters its second decade, here we spotlight four students whose work reflects the heart of the JUPS mission: to understand the structural injustices that cause war and violence — and to alter them in pursuit of lasting peace.

Dia Chawla

FROM: Greenwood, MS
MAJORS: JUPS and government (C’26)
INTERESTS: Rural development and educational policy
EXTRACURRICULARS: Tutor at DC Reads, public policy and regulation intern at Holland & Knight, legislative intern for Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), and co-president of Georgetown Bipartisan Coalition

Why JUPS

“I came to Georgetown pretty set on a traditional pre-law track, majoring in government. When I was looking for classes spring of my freshman year, a friend recommended I take Intro to JUPS, and literally within the first week, it felt like something had clicked. I felt like a door had been opened and I transitioned to a double major.”

Motivation

“I’m the child of two immigrants and grew up in a very small town in the Mississippi Delta, which is a historic part of the South in terms of the civil rights movement. I went to private school in a very under-resourced school district and have always been interested in rural-urban divides and how rural communities in America suffer in different ways.”

Favorite Course

“Probably Intro to JUPS, but I’m taking Human Rights and Justice right now with Professor Brian Kritz, and we went to the DC Superior Court and watched a criminal trial case. It was incredible. That’s what I love about the JUPS program. They really encourage you to put faces behind the things you’re studying and see the application.”

Transformative Experience

“I participated in the Cape Town, South Africa, study abroad program the summer after my freshmen year. It was daunting. I didn’t know a lot about South Africa or apartheid, and it was heavy material — we visited sites of historic bloodshed and listened to stories from people who were involved. But Intro to JUPS encouraged me to learn to thrive in uncomfortable situations. I’m glad I did because that trip was a watershed moment for me in terms of wanting to commit my life to social justice causes.”

Biggest Lesson

“Ideal scenarios may seem naïve but are important to have. You may not be able to reach them, but the process of trying is incredibly important.”

Up Next

“Hopefully participating in a panel at the Peace and Justice Studies Association’s annual conference next fall. Then, after graduation, I want to spend two years doing service work, go to law school and pursue policymaking that addresses poverty in the South.”

Josh Chang

FROM: Honolulu, HI
MAJORS: JUPS and sociology (C’26)
INTERESTS: Environmental justice and educational equity
EXTRACURRICULARS: Research assistant at Hawai’i Green Growth, Georgetown Law’s Denny Center for Democratic Capitalism, the Georgetown Climate Center, sociology department and Yonsei University; Americorps Teaching Fellow at Breakthrough Collaborative; and intern at the Hawai’i State Senate

Why JUPS

“I actually applied to Georgetown as a JUPS major because I valued the program’s interdisciplinary approach. I’d already been really interested in a ton of different fields within the humanities and social sciences so the JUPS major was the perfect way to integrate diverse disciplines for a more holistic and practical understanding of justice and peace.”

Motivation

“I loved my environmental science and marine biology classes in high school. I remember we watched the documentary Seaspiracy about the exploitative and unsustainable fishing industry, and it got me to really care about environmental justice issues. Around the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement was going on and I was exposed to environmental racism. I knew what was happening wasn’t right, and we needed to do something about it.”

Favorite Course

“Intro to JUPS during my freshman year is still one of my most memorable courses at Georgetown. Every reading, every single class discussion was about something I was passionate about and it got me excited about being in college.”

Biggest Lesson

“The intentional application of love and empathy, towards oneself and others, is a way of combating the ever-growing sense of cynicism, hopelessness and alienation felt by many. That’d look like picking up a book, taking a walk, organizing a meal with friends, having difficult conversations or sharing your time and resources through mutual aid.”

Informative Experience

“At the United Nations’ Hawai’i Local2030 Hub, I loved learning how to use census data and geographic information system tools to visualize how climate change disproportionately impacts Hawai’i’s most vulnerable and marginalized communities. I really loved producing beautiful graphics that policymakers and researchers can use to realize actual change.”

Up Next

“I’ll be focused on my JUPS capstone and sociology thesis, which will explore the role of social labels and collective identity in the South Korean women’s movement. After that, I’m planning on pursuing a master’s in teaching.”

Noa Offman

FROM: Toronto, Canada
MAJORS: JUPS (C’25)
INTERESTS: Criminal justice reform
EXTRACURRICULARS: Restorative justice developer, criminal defense intern at Solid Ground Law, and intern at both Newirth Law and Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs

Why JUPS

“My first semester, I took The Problem of God, and one of the topics we covered was the prison industrial complex. My professor, Annalisa Butticci, was teaching at the DC jail through Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, and invited one of her students, Colie ‘Shaka’ Long, to share his lived experience with incarceration via Zoom. I decided while hearing him speak to change my major — I came to Georgetown as a global health major. He later became my mentor.”

Motivation

“My mom is a cardiologist, and I always knew that I wanted to do something that involved people and felt impactful.”

Favorite Course

“Intro to JUPS. We had a whole unit on the prison industrial complex, discussing the tension between reform and abolition as well as the issues plaguing currently incarcerated people. The fact that I was in a classroom setting, getting to talk about these things was exciting and shocking. It dawned on me how rare it is to be in a space surrounded by like-minded individuals who are all asking more of the societies that they belong to.”

Biggest Lesson

“A class called Restorative Justice gave me my greatest tool: radical empathy. As a 21 year old, I’m tasked with listening. I’m not a judge or juror, and listening, especially to people who are often silenced, is a pretty radical act.”

Kismet

“I was interning at the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and worked a lunch, focused on pairing people who are seeking release under the Second Chance Act with pro bono legal representation. Shaka walked in. It had been two years since I first heard him talk in class. I’d attended his trial via Zoom and we had stayed in touch, but that was the first time I’d ever seen him in person. It felt like seeing a celebrity and I wasn’t sure if he’d even remember who I was. But he saw me, ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug. It reaffirmed that this was the work I was meant to be doing.”

What’s Next

“I’ll be studying criminology at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. After that, I want to work in the criminal justice reform space, but I don’t know yet whether that will be through law, journalism, data analysis or something else.”

Julianne Meneses

FROM: Roxbury, NJ
MAJORS: JUPS (C’25)
INTERESTS: Immigration law and policy
EXTRACURRICULARS: Program assistant for JUPS, advocacy intern at Ayuda, 2024 Education and Social Justice Research Fellow, student repre–
sentative at The Capitol Applied Learning Labs, student consultant at Food & Friends, education coordinator for Immigrant Justice Initiatives at Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice, and research intern at Their Story is Our Story

Why JUPS

“I transferred into Georgetown my sophomore year and knew when I applied that I wanted to pursue a major in JUPS, as it offers the type of curriculum I was looking for and the chance to meet academics, professionals and practitioners who have done social justice work in various fields.”

Motivation

“My parents are immigrants from the Philippines, which has always been a strong part of my identity. To be able to discuss topics like immigration and the impact of colonization in an academic setting and explore it from a historical, holistic approach means a lot to me.”

Favorite Course

“Research Methods. I never considered research a viable path for me, but taking that class made me realize how much I enjoy human-centered research, especially interviewing. It led me to pursue a research fellowship through Georgetown and made me realize that what I want from my professional life is to learn from other people, hear their stories and find ways to help them.”

My Research

“Last summer, I traveled to Sarajevo and spent time at a Catholic youth center researching how their structures of education impacted students’ understandings on governance, specifically regarding democracy and politics. The students I interviewed shared that many of their formal school institutions focus on memorization of systems rather than really understanding how they work, but the center emphasizes the students’ agency in the process and provides a space to ask questions and contemplate how their society functions. It was really inspiring to talk to them and see their eyes light up when talking about their experiences.”

Expanded Perspective

“I took Lived Pluralism: Nepal my sophomore year, and as part of the course, we talked about the impacts of British colonialism on the country and its religion, and then spent spring break in Kathmandu, visiting different religious and historical sites and talking to people about their experiences. It was informative to me because I’m a firm believer that when trying to understand a culture, especially in international affairs, we shouldn’t impose or project our biases and priorities but listen to their perspectives.”

Up Next

“I’m currently studying for the LSAT and hoping to go to law school in a few years with the goal of becoming an immigration lawyer.”

At 12, Graham Krewinghaus (C’25) knew he wanted to be a journalist. 

He fondly remembers the daily copy of The Boston Globe plopping down at his front door each morning and unfolding its massive sections. 

“I fell in love with the newspaper,” said Krewinghaus, a Spanish major and journalism minor.

At Georgetown, Krewinghaus followed his love for journalism, becoming involved his first year with The Georgetown Voice, a biweekly student-run magazine. From reporting on GUSA to serving as the editor-in-chief his junior year, Krewinghaus found every nook and cranny of the publication teeming with possibility. 

During his time as an undergraduate, Krewinghaus also pursued several journalism opportunities off campus, including internships at Cape Cod Times, a daily newspaper in Massachusetts, and VTDigger, a Vermont-based online outlet devoted to investigative journalism. While studying abroad in Mexico, he reported in Spanish for his capstone project.

“I completed an in-depth story on migration that focused on an asylum app implemented by the Biden administration,” said Krewinghaus. “I was able to interview folks on the impact of that app and what its removal under the next administration would mean. It was an incredible opportunity, and I was proud to do everything entirely in Spanish.”

While at The Georgetown Voice, Krewinghaus was able to expand his knowledge — and the publications’ offerings. Inspired by his own love of crossword puzzles and the challenge of doing something new, he started creating the puzzles himself.

Now, with graduation around the corner, he’s looking to continue reporting and puzzling anywhere that still prints a newspaper. 

“I still do really love the print medium,” says Krewinghaus. “It’s super cool to see your byline and know that a bunch of other people are going to see that, touch it and read what you wrote yesterday about something that matters to them.”

Highlight of the Experience

I really love the fact that research assistants in the Happy Tech Lab get the opportunity to do work that actually matters to the outcome of the study for the National Institute of Mental Health. Although we inevitably do some tedious things, I was given so many opportunities to interact with actual participants and create protocols that are actually being used to understand the impact of social media on middle schoolers.

Biggest Takeaway

A lot of people in our lab are quite conscious of how much we use technology and social media on a daily basis. I found that to be pretty infectious, especially after one lab meeting when we talked about some of the strategies people use to stay off their phones more. It was refreshing to see that be an active choice when I often feel like most people don’t really think about it at all.

On any given day in the Happy Tech Lab, students and researchers can be seen checking their phones for messages or using apps to manage their bank accounts or social profiles — after all, no one in that room today has known a world pre-Internet, but everyone in that room is working to understand its effect.

Nicole Puapattanakajorn (C’25) is just one of those students. As a psychology major, with a double minor in English and disability studies, Nicole had heard of the work of Associate Professor Kostadin Kushlev and the Happy Tech Lab and needed something to do in the summer of 2024. She was missing home, but a long trip back to her family in Bangkok, Thailand, wasn’t in the cards. So she wanted to find something that would get her busy quickly and allow her to dive into work to battle her light case of homesickness. The bigger bonus for an international student: the start date was flexible, so she could get to work sooner than later, which was exactly what she was after.

Puapattanakajorn isn’t looking for a life in academia when she graduates in May, but she wanted lab experience, and spent time that summer writing scripts, coding survey questions and testing protocols.

“I wanted to know what research would be like in a lab, so I applied to work there through a paid summer fellowship offered through the Department of Psychology, which affords students opportunities to work in a lab who wouldn’t necessarily have that experience in their regular coursework,” she said.

During the summer, the work didn’t require a lot of human contact — one of the main things, Kushlev said, that impacts our happiness. So not surprisingly, Puapattanakajorn, a self-described introvert, found herself looking forward to the biweekly lab meetings that started up during the fall.

They proved a chance to connect with Kushlev and all of the other workers and researchers — to hear about their work, to watch presentations by lab alumni who have gone on to study in other labs, and discuss issues or concerns. Each week the lab team talked about things like Instagram, TikTok and screentime or the latest school and national policies around children and technology.

Puapattanakajorn’s time in the lab has given her that sought-after lab experience, but those bi-weekly staff meetings and the research her fellow lab dwellers share has also given her a few tips on managing her digital appetite to protect herself from negative effects. Turning off notifications, for example, or putting her phone out of sight can help her focus. And trading her text screen for a one-on-one lunch date with a friend can go a long way to keep her homesickness in check and a smile on her face. You might say Puapattanakajorn found her own bit of happy in the Happy Tech Lab.

As part of my research, I analyzed Viveros Hermanos, or Sister Nurseries, a regional reforestation project that supports communities to create nurseries for the endangered trees native to each ecosystem. I conducted an analysis on the impact of their project on the communities that they work with to understand how environmental organizations can empower communities to accomplish their goals through environmental conservation. 

The three parts of my analysis were interviews, observation and personal experience. I traveled to different communities in the region to interview community members that were part of the Viveros Hermanos project. 

Alongside this investigation, I was a volunteer at their nature reserve, Reserva Jaguar del Carrizal, where I worked with other international volunteers to support FEBB’s projects.

FEBB purchased the land for the reserve in 2019 and it was completely deforested. In only five years, the entire ecosystem has transformed. The trees they planted now reach between 10 and 30 feet high, the insects came back, there are squirrels, birds, monkeys and butterflies of all colors that flutter around this enchanted forest. 

I like to think of the reserve as a forgiving forest, the newborn forest in the heart of the world. The heart is always the first to forgive and love again. With just a little love, care, dedication and sacrifice, the magic came back. The earth, like I, like us, began to heal. 

Working with FEBB for six weeks, I was able to observe the influence of their work on the environments and communities they worked in firsthand. My personal experience from this research was nothing short of a loving metamorphosis to be better in tune with my environment, myself and my community.  

At the reserve, everyone worked three hours a day, five days a week on projects like bioconstruction, caring for the tree nursery, planting trees, deep cleaning and brainstorming sessions for their new project: a cultural community center. Each person was also responsible for cooking the three daily meals for the group once or twice a week with a partner. 

My decision to research in Colombia was not purely academic — it was also ancestral. My father and our ancestors have indigenous roots to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, specifically to Barranquilla, the sister city to Santa Marta. So this trip was also about reuniting with my ancestral land and connecting with the culture my family lost in migration to more profitable opportunities. 

Exploring the research opportunities at Georgetown turned out to be a bigger vehicle for my long-term career goals. Throughout the whole process of this investigation, I fell in love with participatory research and decided that my goal is to be a research professor who works with communities that are organizing around environmental conservation. This project felt like the first step in this process.

This trip has forever changed the way that I experience the world. I have learned that peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of care, love and collaboration. We heal ourselves as we heal the earth. 

Cover photo by Phil Humnicky.

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That’s why, every week, she took time to work with Lutheran Social Services, a refugee resettlement agency in Northern Virginia. There, both in-person and online, she co-taught classes to an all-female club of Afghan refugees, covering topics from financial literacy to feminine health and English as a second language (ESL). 

“It felt natural to join initiatives dedicated to migration and ESL because I wasn’t a stranger,” said Ahmed. “As a daughter of immigrants, education holds a central role in my personal and professional aspirations. Since childhood, I’ve been raised to know that education is not simply a title one accomplishes through an institution, but, rather, an experience that requires academic, emotional, spiritual and physical toiling.”

In the spring, Ahmed was recognized alongside seven other graduating seniors in the șŁœÇÂÛÌł of Arts & Sciences with the Lena Landegger Community Service Award, celebrating and honoring their commitments and contributions to service. The award, which has recognized Hoyas for exceptional service for more than 25 years, is given in honor of Lena Landegger (H’87), the mother of George F. (F’58) and Carl (C’53).

Listening to the Call to Serve

Recipients of the award, which is given each year to twenty students across the university in memory of its eponym, embody the call, articulated by Rev. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., for alumni of Jesuit universities to be “people for others,” engaged in the struggle for justice to protect the needs of the most vulnerable. 

For Ahmed, that call was deeply personal, and reflected the personal growth that is essential to a Georgetown education. 

“I didn’t seek out these opportunities because they were service-oriented projects, but rather because they resonated with my values, interests and own past,” said Ahmed. “Having these shared experiences, such as translating for my parents during medical appointments, college applications and day-to-day life, allowed me to better connect with the communities I worked alongside.”

In addition to her work with the Lutheran Social Services, Ahmed became involved with the , or DCSP, a program of the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service. There, she also taught ESL lessons to recently-arrived migrant children from the United States’ southern border. 

“My responsibilities included family outreach, leading information sessions on the Washington, DC, migration context and organizing local advocacy initiatives like distributing school supplies” said Ahmed. “Through this role, I honed my leadership and communication skills by advocating for migrant justice.” 

The through line connecting both programs was an attitude of service in collaboration and fellowship with others. 

“It can be tricky to traverse how to be in solidarity with a community, without disempowering them,” said Ahmed. “What I’ve learned is that service can not be done with the perspective that you are ‘helping’ or ‘giving a voice’ to the communities that you are working with, rather, service must be done from a place of solidarity, and by using your resources to amplify and uplift their narratives.” 

Combining the Personal and the Academic

Like Ahmed, Caroline Vail (C’24) found a second home in the DC Schools Project during her time on the Hilltop. 

“I worked with the DC Schools Project during all 4 of my years at Georgetown,” said Vail. “I was a tutor for 5 semesters, and in the spring of my junior year, I became a coordinator on our school-based team.” 

As a coordinator, Vail supported a small team of tutors as they worked with immigrant students in DC Public Schools on their English language skills. This role involved coordinating with the group’s on-site contacts at the school, communicating with parents and building community among the tutoring team. 

“The biggest lessons I learned from this work were from the relationships that I built with the tutees and their parents, which taught me the importance of working in collaboration with a community rather than simply providing a service or charity to or for a community,” said Vail. 

Vail’s interest in service-based education extended into her academic life. While double-majoring in both linguistics and Portuguese, Vail tacked on a minor in education, inquiry and justice. Her senior honors thesis in linguistics explored the language learning needs of the recently-arrived migrant population that she worked with through DCSP and sought to create a task-based curriculum for tutoring centered on those needs. 

For Vail, her passion for justice is inextricably tied to her faith. On the Hilltop, Vail was deeply involved in campus ministry, serving as a student leader with Chi Alpha, an inter-denominational Christian community. 

“Grounding my commitment to enter into the struggle of the migrant community through solidarity is a firm belief in fundamental human dignity, which encourages me to see each community member as an image-bearer of the Creator,” said Vail. “I see a faith that does justice as one way that I can honor that dignity.”

Today, Vail lives out her ethos of service working as a Student & Family Engagement Coordinator with Center for Supportive Schools, a nonprofit organization contracted by New York City Public Schools to provide support to under-resourced schools. Working at 3 high schools in the Bronx, Vail focuses on projects to increase attendance, improve school culture and climate and promote the wellbeing of the community as a whole.

“I think my faith, and specifically my commitment to honoring fundamental human dignity, was the through line between my academics, my work with DCSP and my leadership in Chi Alpha,” said Vail. “A lot of the information that I learned in the classroom about how we learn languages or about educational equity was directly applicable to my work with DCSP, and vice versa.” 

“I think that the reason that a lot of these things were intertwined was because my motivation was always to honor people and serve the community out of my belief that everyone is made in the image of God.”

Cover illustration by Bratislav Milenković.

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The mountainous areas of Northern Thailand are home to many indigenous groups that migrated from Eastern Myanmar, Southern China and Western Laos for reasons ranging from political unrest to forced cultural assimilation. These ethnic minority groups are known as the hill tribes, with the six major hill tribe groups being the Lahu, Akha, Hmong, Lisu, Karen and Yao tribes. 

Thailand’s universal health care system offers many free services, including regular Papanicolaou (pap) smears and HPV vaccines. In order to access these benefits, however, women must hold a Thai ID card, which is verification of their citizenship. Despite having lived in Thailand for generations, many hill tribe women do not hold Thai ID cards and are therefore ineligible for coverage under universal health care.

Lack of health care coverage, however, is only one of the many barriers that prevent cervical cancer screening uptake. My primary objective this summer was to identify all of the barriers to screening through literature reviews and interviews with the women in order to develop an effective health care intervention to increase screening uptake.

Most of my time was spent preparing for an HPV screening workshop for the hill tribe women, hosted at Mae Fah Luang University. Ninety-five percent of cervical cancers are caused by HPV, making HPV a strong precursor and indication of cervical cancer risk. The goal was to create a workshop that would be most effective at increasing screening uptake. 

To tailor this workshop, I reviewed more than four dozen research papers about common barriers to screening in similar populations as well as ways to overcome these difficulties. This information was then incorporated into the workshops. For example, past interviews with hill tribe women indicated that there was a common cultural value of modesty, which made pap smears highly undesirable due to their invasive nature. Informed by research, HPV self-screening kits were chosen for the workshop. 

During one workshop, I led an activity of building clay models of the female reproductive tract in order to teach the indigenous women about female anatomy. I had preconceived notions that they would have little interest in having me, a foreign and young girl, teach them about their reproductive systems. Despite the heavy language barrier, however, I was met with so much enthusiasm. While we were able to laugh and lightheartedly poke fun at the clay models, many of the women also spoke up about some of their perceptions of women’s health, such as avoiding the gynecologist for fear of judgment. The openness and solidarity that I felt stood out to me, because our ability to connect simply as women completely transcended the bounds of language.

I have always been drawn to the interpersonal aspect of medicine and the unique relationship that is built between a patient and health care provider. This relationship is built on a foundation of mutual understanding that can only be achieved through active consideration of a patient’s identities. Social identities are a huge factor in health care. Whether it is race, religion, socioeconomic or migration status, I believe that as a future physician, I have an imperative to educate myself on the health care disparities that are systematic and institutionalized worldwide. While the research component was highly appealing to me, I found the experience of being immersed in a different culture to be absolutely invaluable. 

I hope to continue researching barriers to cervical cancer screening and take my understanding of health disparities to the next level by pursuing a Master’s of Public Health prior to starting medical school.

This summer truly transformed in the way I value cultural relativism. There are so many underlying identities that inform health decisions — identities that must be examined closely by physicians to truly connect with their patients. I am humbled and grateful that these women were willing to open up to me and share aspects of their culture and way of life with me. This shed light on the nuances of medicine’s micro-level impact, which has only bolstered my ambition to become a doctor. This was an incredible learning curve for me, and I have returned to the United States with a stronger desire to discover more, meet more people and immerse myself in spaces where I can keep learning from people who are different from me. 

Cover photo by Phil Humnicky.

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