Jane Song

COL ’14
Age: 22
Hometown: Pittsford, N.Y.
Major: Government, Sociology

How does where you’re from compare to Georgetown? Where are you most comfortable? 
Pittsford is upstate New York; it’s kind of a farming town. There are a lot of cornfields and stuff around where I live. It’s also very suburban. It’s a weird mixture of the two. I guess I would like Georgetown more. I’ve lived here all four years and don’t go home that often because my parents have moved around a lot, so this is probably where I feel most comfortable.

What do you do?
I have worked with D.C. Reads since my freshman year, and I’ve also done their full-time summer teaching program, so I guess that education programs at the CSJ are kind of my thing.

What are your plans after graduation?
I’m definitely going to work in D.C. I’m still interviewing for a few places. Education policy, research.

Does the question about what you’re going to do post-graduation ever annoy you or stress you out?
People are asking in good faith — they’re interested — so it doesn’t bother me all that much.

What do you like best at Georgetown?
Probably the people I’ve met here. You can definitely find your own group of friends no matter what you’re interested in. 

Why Georgetown?
Honestly, I just applied here on a whim. Out of the places that I got in, it just seemed like the best. It was in a city I would have been interested living and working in.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Participating in the CSJ’s full-time summer teaching program. We try to focus on underserved communities in Ward 7 and 8 in D.C. The place that we worked in last year was the site for all summer schools in Ward 7, so just trying to deal with kids in other programs interacting with our students and managing a classroom all by yourself was a little crazy.

Which television character do you see the most of yourself in and why?
Tina Belcher from “Bob’s Burgers.” I guess it’s more of an aspirational thing. She definitely doesn’t care what other people think. She goes after what she wants. She’s a strong, independent woman — at the age of 13.

If you could lead a protest against one thing, what would it be?
Since I’ve done so much education work, advocating more strongly for the neighborhoods that I have previously served. A school that I had worked at actually got closed down last year — Kenilworth Elementary — and I actually wrote my thesis about it. 

Interviewed by Mallika Sen