Delaney Bader

MSB ’16
Age: 19
Hometown: Clarksburg, N.J.
Majors: Finance and Management

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
Definitely. I feel like the people here and the culture that’s created by the amount of work we’re given create a need in general to be acting busy. Whether you’re working out, doing homework, attending meetings, being in the library and being on your computer, there’s a sense of urgency or busyness. I hate when people say they’re busy; everyone’s busy. When someone asks, it’s not what you want to hear. It’s almost like you’re judged and people look at you and are like, “What are you not doing.” If you’re in your bed watching Netflix for so many hours, there’s definitely an air of judgment. Everyone does it but no one admits it. Anyone who says they’re not watching “House of Cards” for three hours in their bed is a dirty liar.

What do you do?
I’m on the swim team here, so that takes up the majority of my time. On paper it’s 20 hours a week, but with commuting and going to extra lifting sessions, it can add up to a lot more than that. I’m involved in the business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, and there are meetings for that as well. I’m an RA in New South, which is super fun and entertaining for sure with my freshmen; shout out to NS3! The rest of my time is filled with doing stuff related to those or choosing not to do stuff related to those. 

Tell me more about the fraternity experience at Georgetown. 
There are a lot of swimmers in it so that’s how I heard about it. It’s kind of double sided. On one side it’s social and as a freshman, I wanted to meet upperclassmen and people outside the business school, so that aspect was appealing. There are parties, social gatherings, barbeques and it’s really nice to hang out with a different crowd that isn’t people from your freshman floor. On the other side of the fraternity, there’s the professional and networking aspect, which is very useful. Personally I see it as a little different from other fraternities and sororities at Georgetown: We do philanthropic events and what not, but I see it as more professional, though maybe I’m biased. As far as the lack of recognition by the university, I don’t think that’s played a detrimental role in our progress because we’re able to do most of the things we want to do and we have great turnout as far as pledges go. It’s not like they’re hindering people from hearing about us. 

What do you find most frustrating about Georgetown?
The busyness thing is definitely annoying – it’s definitely one of my biggest pet peeves. It’s frustrating to me that everyone is stressed out in a certain way and they don’t feel like they can communicate it because they don’t want to put their problem on someone else because so many people are dealing with different stresses. It suffocates you under this bell jar because people just don’t feel open to communicating these issues and it really builds up. I don’t really know how you would remove that factor but if that could be somehow eliminated that would be a lot better. You look at other schools and kids are boasting about their 4.0 GPAs on Facebook and we can’t compare to that because of the different stress levels at the different schools.

What do you like most about Georgetown? 
What I hate is what I love; I love the drive that all these kids have here. I came from a public school where kids didn’t care at all. It’s cool to see people want to stay in and study as opposed to people just wanting to get trashed Wednesday to Friday. I love how conscientious the students are here. The atmosphere here in the spring with people on the lawn playing is just gorgeous; it’s such a beautiful environment to live in.

Do you think you’ve succeeded at getting out of the Georgetown bubble?
Absolutely not. I’ve tried, though. Freshman year our favorite place to go was Japone in Dupont and I still have PTSD from it closing. When I’m sitting in class I’m looking up happy hours outside of Georgetown or things to do in D.C. and I realize there’s so much to do and I’m missing out on so much. But during the weekends I’m studying for a big part of the day and I know if I don’t get around to doing it I will regret it. 

What’s your favorite class you’ve taken at Georgetown? 
“Theater and the Catholic Imagination” with Fr. Curry — he’s dope. We gave each other massages on the daily, we danced a lot, the final was a flash mob, we did a lot of public speaking, we had to read poems and we did gymnastics. Basically it was just really fun and it was nice to go to a class and not worry about sitting down and taking notes and listening to a lecture for an hour and fifteen minutes. It was a break from the monotony. 

What’s your greatest fear?
Going to this school for four years, my parents paying however much they’re paying, and I graduate and have no job and have nowhere to go. My greatest fear is going back to New Jersey for x period of time. As soon as I graduate I want this to be my diving board; I want to jump right in. I fear that my work, energy, time won’t amount to anything after graduation.

If you could lead a protest on one thing, what would it be?
I’m taking an intro to women and gender studies class but we actually just watched a film on violence against women on college campuses. Over 50 percent of men responded that if they knew they would get away with it they would rape a female. If I’m out at a party, half the guys would take the opportunity if given to them; that’s just shocking. So I would lead a protest on violence against women. As a cause it’s very undervalued in general. People know about it in the back of their minds or how widespread it is. We get messages from DPS like a few blocks away – but it’s a lot more close to home and not picked up on as much.  

Interview by Braden McDonald