Azhar Unwala

SFS ’16
Age: 19
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Major: International Politics (Arabic studies)

Compare and contrast where you’re from to Georgetown. Where are you more comfortable?Dallas is more suburban. It’s more business-like; it’s very sprawled-out. It’s less diverse. Georgetown is a little more city-like, a little more globalized, a lot more diverse, a lot more intellectual because it’s a university campus. I honestly feel at home in both places. I guess I prefer D.C. because I like the environment and I like all the people and the nightlife and all that stuff, but I feel at home in both places. Dallas is always home for me.

What do you do on campus?
I’m on the debate team. I am a section editor for the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. Those are the two big things.

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
I’m not sure if I feel obliged to be busy. I like to be busy. I like doing a lot of things.

What do you like most about Georgetown?
I like the people. It’s a group of people from a lot of different places and a lot of different experiences, and we all share a sort of common thing at Georgetown and it’s a great school environment that has a lot of pride. It’s pretty much like a community.

What do you like least about Georgetown?
It tends to be a little too much like a bubble. On one hand, it’s good that it’s a community and has a lot of school pride, but on the other hand, it’s maybe a little too insulated from the outside world.

What do you hope Georgetown will help you accomplish?
It’ll provide me a strong academic foundation for a career that I’m interested in and provide new friends and networks that I couldn’t get anywhere else. Probably because of the people, but also because of the professors and the city.

What career path would that be?
I don’t know honestly. I like international relations and stuff like that, so along that route.

What’s your greatest fear?
Not being to communicate with others effectively. People don’t understand me. Alienated.

Interview by Ian Tice