Czarina Ramos

COL ’16
Age: 19
Hometown: Kansas. Born in the Philippines and grew up in Hong Kong
Major: Neurobiology major
Minors: Art and French

What do you do on campus?
A little bit of everything. I’m involved in Club Filipino. I run a program under HOPE called Friday Foods; we take bagged lunches to Dupont Circle every Friday for the homeless. I’m in Caring for Children with Cancer, I’m a marketing chair and I do research on campus. 

What do you like most about Georgetown? 
The thing I like about Georgetown the most is the fact that there’s something here that makes you realize that all of these things that you’re doing in class contribute to your personal success. I’ve never been in a community that cares so much about the rest of the world. It’s very inspiring. The whole “women and men for others” notion is the coolest thing about Georgetown. 

What are your plans after Georgetown? Does this question annoy you? 
It doesn’t annoy me as much as it scares me. It’s crazy to think it’s halfway over. I really don’t know. I kind of want to do research. I thought I wanted to do med school but I’m stepping back from that a little bit. Ideally the research would be something that puts together all of my interests — neurology, French and art. Maybe there’s a market for mapping the brain artistically in French? Who knows, honestly.

What do you hope Georgetown will help you accomplish, apart from finding a career?
I honestly want to graduate taking away the message that Georgetown brings to people: women and men for others and education of the whole person. I think I want to take away this sense of wholeness that Georgetown seems to have. There are so many facets of a person that we normally don’t look at and the fact that Georgetown brings that to light is amazing. 

How did you pick Georgetown?
Funny story! I applied to Georgetown because I put off my college applications so I started on January 2nd. I do not recommend that — bad idea. But I picked Georgetown because personality-wise I felt like it would make me the happiest. I knew that if I went to a good school I would get into good classes, but in terms of something more, it had what I was looking for. If Georgetown were an individual, I would really like them. It’s like speed dating. I would hang out with Georgetown. 

Where are you from? What was the biggest difference?
I’m from a lot of places, but I’ll pick Kansas. I’m trying to think of things other than people that wear camouflage. Here you can always meet new people, which is not the case in my 7,000-person town. Here you can be as involved as you want, or you can be alone and anonymous, whatever. But in Kansas you cannot walk into a Walmart and not see someone you know. It has its ups and downs. The viewpoints here are just so diverse and I think that’s really cool. There’s a lot of dialogue — we do care about making it inclusive and stuff — but people aren’t afraid to speak up. There’s an environment that’s encouraging for diversity, whereas in Kansas everyone is stepping on everyone’s toes. It’s nice to be here and talk freely knowing that no matter what you’re going to be part of the community. 

What’s a skill that you don’t have that you would like to have? 
When I grew up I tried to learn five different musical instruments because I was so bad at music. My parents were very disappointed. I wish I knew at least one to play for relatives at a Christmas party. Whenever we had an annual talent show, that was always a bummer. They don’t recognize my really good Nicki Minaj impression as a talent. I think it’s really cool. I just turn into Nicki. It requires a lot of practice. After a while you sing her songs and you can’t sing it in your own voice — you just have to be Nicki. 

What’s your greatest fear?
Failure. Typical. That, or I had a really big fear of the tooth fairy when I was little. I watched a movie called Darkness Falls; I’m still really afraid of the dark. I sleep with a night-light on; my roommate isn’t very happy. 

Do you feel like you do a good job of getting out of the Georgetown Bubble?
I still don’t think I get out of the Georgetown bubble enough. I feel like a tourist still when I go to the monuments. You shouldn’t feel like a tourist if you go to the monuments. I want to go to the majority of the art galleries. I went to Phillips and the Native American Museum for a class and it was great.

What gets you out of bed?
I like the mornings. I like daylight. I like walking through campus with my headphones and a really good song. I definitely peak in the morning and after that it’s a very hard fall. Being alive in the morning is a great thing. This semester I actually scheduled the majority of my classes in the morning. I’m very much a morning person, or at least I pretend to be. I feel like if you schedule enough classes in the morning it helps. 

Interview by Braden McDonald