Allie McCarthy

Director of Presidential Correspondence
Age: 26
Hometown: Boston, Mass.
Time at Georgetown: 4 years

Why did you decide to transfer to Georgetown?
In one word, it would be the energy. In visiting Georgetown when I was a senior in high school, I came here on the hottest summer day possible — I think it was about 105 degrees. And the campus, even though it was the summer, even though it was oppressively hot, it was just buzzing. And there was so much energy, and I knew that was where I wanted to be. That’s the type of community I wanted to be a part of, and, even now that I’m a staff member, I still feel that energy, and it still draws me to work everyday.

Why did you decide to stay on campus after graduation?
As a transfer student, and also having gone abroad, I just felt like I didn’t have enough time at Georgetown, and so when I had the opportunity to pursue a position in the president’s office toward the end of my senior year I thought, “What a good way to still be a part of this awesome place.”

Can you describe your position?
I work in the president’s office, and I work in communications, so I’m doing a lot of writing and helping to manage the president’s communications. In particular, my sort of area is correspondence, so all of the emails, messages, letters that come into the president, I help to manage them, make sure they get responded to. And also sometimes when we need to do messages to the community, or communicate with our Georgetown community, that’s also sort of where I’m helpful as well.

Does your role allow you to come in contact with a lot of interesting people on campus?
I get to work with a lot of people at the university, as I’m sure you can imagine. So much goes on here at Georgetown, but a lot of it comes across the radar or is funneled through the president’s office, and so I get to be apprised of a lot of interesting things that are going on here and work with colleagues from across the campuses, at the med school, at the law center, colleagues that are more academic-focused such as faculty, our team in advancement, which does a lot of alumni outreach, and so I really get to work with people who are working on all sorts of different aspects of Georgetown. And that’s just been wonderful. It’s great to get to work with these passionate people, and just to collaborate with them. And also as the TA for the president’s class, I feel very lucky to be able to get to work with students, and so I’ve done that for two years and that’s been a real highlight cause I love the students here and just getting to know them as freshmen is pretty special. 

Do you have any memorable moments from your time on campus, whether working or as an undergraduate?
When I was a senior, it was the year of Snowpocalypse. We had 30 inches of snow and school was cancelled for a week — it was just crazy. But about a week before then we had another snowstorm, which was really significant, and Georgetown was playing Villanova. So, despite the city being shut down, a bunch of my friends and I trekked to Verizon Center, and we were so happy to be there to support our Hoyas. And when we were coming back there were no buses or any transportation going, so we were walking across the Key Bridge and just sort of seeing Georgetown in the snow with all Georgetown people walking in the middle of the Key Bridge, it just sort of felt like, we are awesome, and this is a great place to be a part of.

Have you noticed any changes on campus since being here as an undergraduate?
Well there are certain elements of Georgetown that make it very dynamic and open to change but that have been around for a very long time, so in that way you sort of feel rooted, and you also feel like things are changing. Things like our Catholic and Jesuit identity, excelling in academics, our global engagement. Every day there are new facets that are opening, but it really does harken back to elements that have been here for 225 years, so I would say there is always this dynamism, but we’re also rooted.

What does Georgetown do well?
I think that the area that Georgetown excels in is creating students who are lifelong learners and contributors, and that’s something that, with every graduating class, you’re amazed at what people are doing, what people have done, and I think that we continue to do that well. Infusing that Catholic and Jesuit sense of educating the whole person into the curriculum, I think we really live that.

Do you have anything you’d like to add?
Having been a hopeful Georgetown student, an actual Georgetown student and a staff member, Georgetown has meant different things to me at different points in my life. But as long as you’re open to having a sort of different relationship with it at different points in your life, it’s always going to be meaningful. You don’t just have to look back on it as something that was wonderful. You can continue to engage at different stages of your life and career and get something out of it at different points.

Interview by Robert DePaolo