Josh Loewenstern

COL ’14
Age: 21
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pa.
Major: Psychology

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
Yes. I think most people with internships, jobs or whatever always want to pack their resume as much as they can. There is that pressure in your friend group running around constantly in the library.

What do you do on campus?
I’m pre-med, so I spend a lot of time studying and taking science classes. I’m president of the Georgetown Israel Alliance. I’m in the psychology honors group and I do a little bit of stuff with the Jewish Student Alliance. I volunteer at GW’s hospital every Saturday and I spend a lot of time in my lab working on my thesis.

What do you find most frustrating about Georgetown?
If you’re trying to pack in activities, get straight A’s and prepare for med school like me, there’s no breathing room or breaks. I get very few hours of sleep. Even on weekends I find myself needing to stay in and not be able to go out with friends because I’m trying to get the right amount of sleep. A lot of people have the same experiences: They find there’s not much time to breathe.

What do you like most about Georgetown?
I think there is a lot of opportunity being in and around the D.C. area. Even at Georgetown there is a whole range of clubs to get involved and find your niche in. It’s flexible here too. I’ve changed majors twice for different career paths and found it not too hard to transfer schools and majors. I transferred from MSB to the College in my freshman year. I was between wanting to do medicine and investment banking. I had done accounting classes all through high school, but taking business classes and joining investing clubs here I got tired of all the time I was spending analyzing income statements and balance sheets, and I figured if I couldn’t do it here then I didn’t think I could do it later. That was coupled with taking psychology and science courses and loving those.

How did you pick Georgetown?
I wanted to go for a top undergrad business program so it was between here and Stern at NYU, and I chose here over NYU because I didn’t like how that campus was in the center of skyscrapers. I like the campus here with sports and people are riled up about basketball and green lawns.

As a senior, do you have any regrets about the Georgetown experience?
I’m not saying I would have the time, but I would have wanted to get more involved in some organizations — maybe a job at the Corp, working at The Hoya. Something very Georgetown.

Where are you from? Compare and contrast it to Georgetown. Where are you more comfortable?
I’m from Philadelphia. The biggest change was living independently for the first time. Obviously I’m still financially dependent, but doing things for the first time, the freedom to do whatever I wanted and make my own mistakes was as a big adjustment. I guess it’s an even bigger adjustment to the real world; this is sort of an artificial environment. But I don’t have to do that for a long time.

What’s the biggest change you’ve consciously made in your life and why?
I feel like I started trying to talk more and interact more with my family. I never did that too much in high school; I only hung out with my friends and never spent time at home, but I’ve since realized how important family connections are rather than superficial friend relationships. It’s the same thing with my sister. She just calls me all the time now.

If you could lead a protest on one thing, what would it be?
Insensitivity toward minority groups, like the LGBT community, any kind of racial minority, and not propagating these stereotypes. That’s pretty important and infuriates me a lot.

What is your favorite word?
Prosopagnosia – a disorder where you can’t recognize faces. You could use it and no one would know what it meant. I guess it’s kind of a pretentious term.

Interview by Braden McDonald