Emily Coccia

COL ‘15
Age: 21
Hometown: Paoli, Pa.
Majors: English and Government

What do you do on campus?
I’m the editor-in-chief of the yearbook. I’m on the board for the Philodemic Society. I’m on the board of Women in Politics. I’m a WAGE fellow and a Carroll Fellow. I also live in Magis Row, which is female empowerment. So I’m in a female empowerment house. I’ve written a few op-eds for the Voice. 

What are your plans after Georgetown?
I actually applied to the A.B./M.A. program to do a Master’s in English. I work for Georgetown University Press, so I would love to stay in publishing. 

What do you hope Georgetown will help you accomplish?
I came here for the liberal arts education. I went to Catholic high school and I’m very much a humanities kid. A big part of it is being able to come out of school and be able to read effectively and write effectively and I do the Philodemic Society to be able to talk about what I believe and why I have the positions I do. And I think that for me, that’s very much the value of a liberal arts education. I might not come out and write everything I know about Shakespeare, but I can write about things.

What do you think Georgetown has helped you accomplish so far?
I’ve definitely been able to find what I’m passionate about. I came in thinking I was going to go to law school and become a politician — I think most people do — but the friends that I’ve made here and the clubs that I’ve gotten to do have allowed me to be very involved. I’ve been able to figure out what matters to me, especially going abroad helped me figure out, yes, I might be a government major, but at the end of the day what I want to do is English. That’s what sort of drives me and makes me do what I do. So I came back and got a job at the Press and just got hired for another year so I’m very excited. 

Do you feel you fit in at Georgetown?
Yeah. That’s actually why I came here. I was back and forth between quite a few schools at the end, narrowed it down to three, and I visited all of them. I had extensive pro/con lists trying to figure out where I was going to go. But I felt like I fit in at Georgetown. People were nice. That sounds superficial, but people were very nice and I felt like they cared what they were doing. I have a lot of upperclassmen friends and even though they’re second semester seniors, they’re not checked out. They’re still very much invested in everything that they do. To me that was a very big deal.

Compare and contrast where you’re from to Georgetown. Where do you feel more comfortable?
I am from a small city on the upper mainline outside of Philly and went to an all girl’s high school. There were 100 of us. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved it, but there’s definitely more diversity at Georgetown. My high school was also very humanities-based, so that’s very similar, and we have the nun equivalent of Jesuits. But it’s very different to live in a city. There’s public transportation, I definitely feel more comfortable here. At home, I love it and I can go home and the dry cleaner still knows my name. But it’s a smalltown suburb and I prefer living in the city.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
I think that going abroad [to the Villa in Italy]. It was also one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I went abroad as a sophomore and so there was only person on the entire trip that I knew and we had just had one class together one semester, so I really knew no one. None of my friends were going abroad, and it was a bit last minute, but it ended up being amazing. I thought I was going to graduate early so I thought that it might be the only chance I had. I ended up deciding not to graduate early, but I figured, I was going through personal change and I wanted a change. That was also the semester I sort of figured out what I wanted to do with my life. 

What would you change about yourself, or what’s the biggest change you’ve consciously made in your life, and why?
If I could change something, I would probably be a bit more self-confident, willing to take risks. But the biggest thing I have changed is abandoning the law school plans and going full-steam ahead with the English major, going to the Masters, considering Ph.D. programs, and just throwing myself into what I love. So I guess in one sense that’s a risk, in today’s job economy. 

If you could lead a protest on one thing, what would it be?
It would probably have to do something with student debt, realistically. As far as issues affecting me, as far as seeing my own student debt accumulate. Something about making college more affordable.

What does Georgetown mean to you?
For me, coming to Georgetown was probably the best choice I’ve ever made. It’s essentially four years of being able to talk to people who are very passionate and often very intense about what they’re doing, and getting four years to figure out what matters to you and figuring out what you want to do with your life and talking to professors. It sounds so cliche. My professors have all been very helpful and very invested in making sure I’m doing something that matters to me, and they clearly care about what they’re doing, and being able to have those conversations day in and day out with my roommates and my friends, for me, that’s what makes Georgetown. The classroom itself, not this online education people are talking about, but classrooms and office hours and roommates and stuff, that’s what makes Georgetown.

Interview by Kim Bussing