Kyle Rice

SFS ’16
Age: 20
Hometown: South Bend, Ind.
Major: Science, Technology and International Affairs (Business Growth and Development)

How different is South Bend from Georgetown? Where do you feel more comfortable?
It’s different from D.C. … D.C. offers more opportunities for career advancement than you might find back home — internships, things like that — which was a big draw for me coming out here. That’s the biggest way. There are good aspects about both. When you go home, you can drive around, go out in the country, hang out with your high school friends, which is a lot of fun. Here, I tend to be more serious, I guess, in term of buckling down and getting a lot of work done. This is a more work-intensive environment than going back home and sort of chilling and relaxing and that sort of thing.

What do you do on campus?
College Dems was probably my first big commitment. GU Melody, I got involved with last year; we go and tutor kids every week in music appreciation and basic music skills, like the drums, recorder, guitar, piano, singing lessons — that sort of thing. I work for Housing, I work for the Office of Sustainability and I’m still sort of working with them as part of my position at the SIPS Fund. I’m development director, so that takes up a lot of my time that I have allotted to commit to extracurricular activities, aside from interning on the Hill and working for Housing. The opportunities that that group has offered me, and the opportunities we offer other people — the SIPS fund is basically a social venture firm; we give money to people, but instead of expecting an investing in terms of money back, we expect return in terms of social impact. That’s just been a really great organization, and if I can plug SIPS at all, I encourage people to apply for funding.

Where and with who do you feel the most comfortable on campus?
That’s a good question. I feel comfortable pretty much everywhere. I’ve been noted to study in Lau 1 in the dungeon, Lau 2; it all depends on my mood, really, and how much stuff I need to get done. I guess that’s not really “me time,’ though, is it? For me time, I like to stay in my dorm and just watch TV on my computer. There’s not a lot of “me time,” but that’s also fine.
I’m still really close with my friends from my freshman floor; a lot of us live on the same floor now. We all lived on Village C West 7 last year as freshman, and we all moved catty-corner to VCE 6 — a lot of us did. I’m still really close with all of them. It’ll be sad to see all of them going abroad next semester.

What would you change about yourself if you could?
It was my very short-lived new year’s resolution to be better at social media. I made a Twitter and I made an Instagram, but I hated them and never used them. I wished I was more present or active; I just changed my cover photo from the Trevor and Omika cover photo, which had been there for like two months past the election. I guess that’s what I would change about myself.

What’s the biggest change you’ve consciously made and why?
For this semester, definitely my work ethic, I would say. I think there’s a big voice at Georgetown that says: “Don’t really overburden yourself; don’t get involved in too many things. Schoolwork comes first,” which I definitely agree with — schoolwork should come first. But this semester, I’ve definitely gotten involved with a lot, and I found that I think I’m at the very limit of what I have time to do — there are only so many hours in the day. Once you hit that limit, depending on how you approach getting things done, instead of a paper taking a whole week to do, you can do it in a day-and-a-half, or something like that. You become much more efficient when you’re challenged to get things done, so I think that’s a big way I think I’ve changed, especially this semester.

What are your plans after Georgetown?
That’s probably the most difficult question. I’m a STIA major, business growth and development, so I’ve looked at consulting. Grad school may be an option, maybe after a few years of working. As far as where, I love D.C., but I’m closer to Chicago, so maybe going back and finding somewhere in Chicago. Probably a bigger city, where there’s more opportunities. The “what” is really the hard question, though. I don’t really want to become an academic, although I’m interested in doing research, but not in a super-academic sense.

What kind of research would you be interested in?
Right now, I’m doing research with Fr. Carnes, S.J., about the social impact of the Church, the Catholic Church, but I think my interests more align with how other countries use technology and science —what are ways that it impacts the economy, impacts business, impacts international relations. I think I’m more interested in that, which is exactly what STIA is.

Do you feel like you fit in at Georgetown?
Oh yeah. This is very optimistic, but I think it’s hard not to fit in at Georgetown; it’s just so exceptionally diverse. If you have an interest, there’s a club for you, there’s a group for you. And this is just my experience, I’m sure other people have other experiences. I’m sure there are circles that I wouldn’t get along with, and then there are circles that probably exist now that I’d get along with more than my current circles of friends or groups I’m involved in, but I’m happy where I am.

What’s your favorite class that you’ve taken at Georgetown?
I really liked Fr. Carnes’ CPS class. Also, because I’m in the SFS, Map is also good. They’re both kind of larger overviews over large areas of study, but both Professor Reardon-Anderson is great, Fr. Carnes is excellent. I’ve recommended them to several freshmen already. 

If you could lead a protest on anything, what would it be?
Probably gun control. Definitely. I think there’s a lot of social justice issues that go right along with that, there’s a lot of economic issues that go along with that, and I think the cases on both of those areas are more strong … also health care issues. Those three areas, there’s a much more strong argument in the “more control” case. Not complete prohibition, but some amount of control.

Interview by Hanaa Khadraoui