Alisha Dua

COL ’16
Age: 19
Hometown: San Jose, Calif.
Major: Neurobiology and Government

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
I don’t necessarily feel obliged to be busy but I recognize that it feels like I’m busy but sometimes I forget the reason why. With all the work you face with schoolwork and emails, you’re constantly doing something and it’s easy to forget the why behind doing it. There is definitely a reason but being cognizant of it in the present is sometimes difficult.

What do you do on campus?
I am involved in the College Academic Council as one of the sophomore representatives. I started last year and really enjoyed it. I was a participant in and now leader for FOCI, a pre-orientation program.

What do you find most frustrating about Georgetown?
One of the things is actually the “busyness for no reason” aspect. I know I fall into it. With Georgetown’s ideals of men and women for others, I wanted to make sure that my education and everything I was doing was focused on being able to give back and have more good in this world. I don’t know if it is just a Georgetown thing but I always see the crazed stress, where you can’t hang out with your friends and have to lock yourself in your room. I wish it were more relaxed; I wish there were more of a purpose to the monotony of the day to day.

What do you like most about Georgetown?
The best thing about Georgetown has been being able to continue my love for dong a lot of different things. When you apply to college, you have to show off that one thing that you were really dedicated to. I was consistently told I did too many little things, but Georgetown is a place where I can find a way to be involved in all those interests. I did Children’s Theater last year, in addition to FOCI and community service. On top of that, even with my busy schedule, I’m doing a tutorial on neuroethics. It’s nowhere in my major but it’s available to me and I love it. People want you to do well and want you to do new things and have new experiences.

What do you hope Georgetown will help you accomplish?
Having gone to Georgetown, I hope the memory of being here will help me remember why I’m doing what I’m doing and the value of being a woman for others, the value of trying to solve and fight for social justice issues and gearing my work toward others and not to myself. I’ll also the value the community after I graduate.

Where are you from? Compare and contrast it to Georgetown. Where are you more comfortable?
I grew up in San Jose, Calif., but I’m actually half Indian so I used to live in India and I went back a lot. Coming to Georgetown and having had the experience of two different realities made the transition really easy. D.C. has been amazing and I hadn’t really ever been to the East Coast before touring colleges. I don’t like the cold and that’s never going to change, but I love the history here and being able to experience that. The culture is very different and it’s great to soak that up in light of my past experiences in different cultures.

You say that part of FOCI is helping people discover D.C. rather than just Georgetown. But do you think you personally do a good job of getting out of the Georgetown bubble?
It’s kind of one of the reasons I applied to be a leader: I wanted to give incoming freshmen the experience of this opportunity to get out of the bubble. Really if you can you should go out into D.C. But even I find I can’t leave campus at times. I definitely wish I did more and that is the goal now that I’m done with orgo and physics.

What’s your greatest fear?
Being inadequate, or feeling like I haven’t done enough or there’s more I could do in a situation with a person, like my boss. I try to be a people pleaser; I try to make people happy and do the best work I can. It’s scary for me that that can’t always be the case. I want to be able to make a difference. If that doesn’t end up happening in my life, then that scares me.

If you could lead a protest on one thing, what would it be?
I think one of the things that troubles me the most is people’s actions toward and words toward the LGBTQ community. I have an older brother who’s gay and I’ve never been able to understand the idea of sin or wrongdoing for who someone is or who someone loves. If you love someone and it’s true love, whether it’s between a man and a woman or a man and a man, I don’t know how you could be faulted for that. It’s not necessarily … some parts of the Christian community not wanting [gay] marriage — I do believe in people’s right to their own beliefs — but I’m referring more to the activities of Westboro Baptist Church and the things people say and the way people interact with people who are different from them. There’s a sense of — it almost seems like naivety to me, that someone is less of a human being. I want to fight for everyone thinking of everyone as an equal, deserving of the same respect and love. That’s something I really strongly believe in.

What’s a skill you don’t have that you wish you did?
Personal organization abilities: I’m not that bad when it comes to my responsibilities outside of myself, or in a group. But if you see my room it looks like a bomb went off; it’s probably not livable but I make it work somehow. At the beginning of the semester I have a calendar and I’m all organized, but two weeks later I’m done with it, which leads to some hectic things. I know I would be happier and less stressed out if I worked toward better organization; it would be very useful to my life, especially in college.

Interviewed by Braden McDonald