Ryan Shymansky

COL ’17
Age: 20
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa.Major: Majoring in government and minoring in economics and theology

Can you tell me a little more about where you’re from?
I’m from right outside the city, probably like a 15 minute drive — it’s not that far at all. But Pittsburgh’s a pretty small city. A lot of people get a bad taste in their mouth when they hear it, but it’s actually a really cool place. It’s on its way back up. Last year, the population increased for the first time since 1952, I think, or something like that. I live and die for that city, grew up there; I could see myself ending up back there. It’s just a really awesome place.

How different do you think it is from Georgetown?
It’s pretty much the polar opposite of D.C. in general, I’d say. D.C., I think a lot of time, you get here and there’s not a lot of local culture. You have so many people here for careers and getting started and stuff; few people are lifelong D.C. residents, and those that are don’t live in Georgetown, so I think that this is a much more professional atmosphere. Pittsburgh, I mean, you’re there, you’re surrounded by, we call them “yinzers.” The equivalent of “y’all” in Pittsburgh is “yinz”, so we call them yinzers. They’ve lived in Pittsburgh their whole life, and that’s just their city, and there’s an accent that goes along with it. There’s just so much local culture in the city, but it’s just such a sharp contrast to D.C., especially in Georgetown because it’s more upscale.

Where do you feel more comfortable?
I tend to feel more comfortable in Pittsburgh, just because I can wear a T-shirt around there or something, like a baggy T-shirt, and not have to worry about looking like I don’t care about how I look in the morning. Here, I’m putting on a nice shirt at the beginning of every day, and when I’m back home, it doesn’t matter what I wear because it’s not really a ritzy place or anything like that. That’s not to say I don’t feel at home here, because I do, it’s just it’s a different kind of place, and so that’s where that comes into play.

What do you do on campus?
A couple of things. This year, I’m president of the Henle hall council, and — I don’t want to rattle off my resume here — I’m on the ed board for the Voice. I’m sorry about that. [Laughter]. And then I’m co-director of the SAO [Student Advocacy Office] for this upcoming year.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
See, this is tough, because I’ve lived a pretty blessed life. There was a time — this was pre-Georgetown — there was a time in ninth grade, after my ninth grade in high school, my dad decided to take me on a 150-mile bike ride for raising money for [Multiple Sclerosis]. And it was split up over two days, so it’s 75 and 75, but I can remember on that ride thinking that there’s nothing that was tougher than this, and I’m not sure there has been anything more physically agonizing since, because I’ve done the ride since then, but it just got easier or I just got more used to it every year, but that first year … that was really hard. But that’s the hardest thing that comes to mind — I’m sure there’s something that was harder. … I mean I almost feel bad saying that because my life has been pretty good; I haven’t had that many awful, difficult things that I’ve had to do.

Do you feel obligated to feel busy at Georgetown?
Yes. You do. One of the things I joke about with people is that Georgetown is one of the only schools I’ve been to where people try to out-busy each other in conversation. Like, “Oh my god, I have two midterms tomorrow,” and then somebody goes, “Oh, well I have two midterms and a 15-page paper due.” And then somebody will chime in that they have three midterms, a 15-page paper and a lab tomorrow. And then with extracurriculars and with internships, it adds more on to it. And so while I’ve always enjoyed being busy, I think that Georgetown, if you don’t like being busy and that sort of thing is difficult to deal with, it’s probably going to be tough, because people really do care about being busy here. I think one of the contributing factors to that is that at a lot of schools you have frats and sororities and stuff that people get into, and that’s how they meet friends. Here, really, to meet friends, you have to join extracurriculars, so you almost have to be involved just to meet people.

What’s your favorite class you’ve taken at Georgetown?
My favorite class is actually one I’m taking right now. It’s called “Energy and Globalization” or “Challenges in Globalization.” It’s actually with the professor I took CPS with: Gustafson. I’ve learned so much in it, and the onus is on you to do a lot of the learning, but it’s so interesting, and there’s such high-level discussion that goes on. I look forward to it every day. It doesn’t hurt that we’re in—do you know where the GUSA senate meets, in that one room? We’re in there for class, and it’s just the coolest thing ever, because it’s just a really pretty room. We have great discussion, Professor Gustafson is a really smart guy, and I’ve learned a lot. That would be my favorite class.

If you could lead a protest on one thing, what would it be?
There are so many things I would protest, although I should qualify that by saying that some of things I would protest are not the things that people protest. I think there’s a habit for people to look at the tax code and say that we need more equality in it, and me being the Republican that I am, I look at it and I say, you have a certain percentage of the population paying so much of the tax code already. I would protest for a flattened, more simplified tax code. Not necessarily making the tax code less progressive, but taking out loopholes in the tax code to make it flatter, a little bit more evenhanded, so you didn’t have a loophole for corporate checks, but you also didn’t have loopholes for, I don’t know, having “x” number of kids or something like that. That was a pretty conservative answer, but that’s what gets me the most riled up. It’s a weird protest idea; it should be something more inflammatory.

What television character do you see yourself most in?
I watch “Modern Family” a lot, and I like to think on “Modern Family” I would be Phil Dunphy, just because he’s the best character. He’s just a fun guy, and I like to think of myself as a fun person — I may not actually be one, but I like to think of myself that way. I’d probably be him, but that would be for comedy. I’m going to give a drama answer, too. If I were in a television drama, I would most like to be Ice-T from “[Law & Order] SVU,” just because he has some great one-liners. He’s just a cool dude.

Interview by Hanaa Khadraoui