Ava Arroyo

SFS ’16
Age: 19
Hometown: Milwaukee, Wis.
Major: Culture and Politics

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
Yes. It’s naturally in me; I like to be busy, but I definitely feel the culture here makes me constantly feel like I have to be doing something. When I do stop and take a break I feel like I’m doing something wrong. 

What do you do here on campus?
I’m involved in GU Women in Leadership. I work on some innovation stuff. Last semester, I helped plan the Storytelling Summit. Basically we wanted Georgetown students to learn the power of telling stories whether it’s online or in person just because you can make more of an impact and you’re able to persuade people with powerful stories. I also helped with opening up the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation. We have a lot of projects we’re working on, just to make Georgetown a more technologically advanced place and encourage innovation among students. For GU Women in Leadership, we just had the Own It Summit, which was huge. We were trending on Twitter in D.C. – number one trending hashtag. It was inspiring to hear from attendees that women leadership is something Georgetown students care about and want. 

You helped found GUWIL, correct?
Yes. Last spring, just over a year ago, I founded it with a friend. We actually had met on Facebook. We both were posting about stuff we had done in high school, about girls in developing countries and empowerment. We decided to meet at Saxby’s and we just got to talking and we felt like we were missing something at Georgetown. We don’t feel like we have the space Georgetown should have for developing women leaders, and so we were like, Let’s start something. It’s grown. We went from being nothing and now we have over 300 active members.

What do you hope Georgetown will help you accomplish?
I think having awesome friendships and relationships with people. I do learn here and at the end of the day I’m here to get a degree, but I think more important is just the relationships that I’m going to make. 40 years from now I want my best friends to be from Georgetown. Just the people in my life, my network.

Do you feel you fit in at Georgetown?
I do, definitely. I think when I came into Georgetown I thought Georgetown students were this one type, but I learned as I got more involved that we do have so many types of people here and that it really is a diverse campus.

What’s your favorite class you’ve had here?
“Folk Religions in Latin America.” I took it my freshman year spring and it was such a great class. It was something random and it was by far my favorite class. We were learning about folk religions, these kind of niche religions in Latin America. It was so interesting and it had the best professor ever, Professor Joseph Murphy. He just got you engaged in a subject you didn’t think you were going to.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Going into my freshman year of college, the summer before I went to Morocco on a language scholarship. I had never been out of the country, and it was one of the best experiences. But it was so challenging because I was learning Arabic but didn’t know one word of it, I was living with a host family. It was challenging, but looking back I loved it.

If you could travel abroad anywhere, where would it be?
China. I don’t know why. I’m just fascinated with it and I always hear about it in the news and I want to see what it’s all about.

Which television character do you see the most of yourself in and why?
I’d say Miranda, from “Sex and the City,” just because of her attitude about things. She’s very direct. She’s funny.

Where would you like to live after college?
New York or London. I’m a city girl through and through. 

Interview by Kim Bussing