Steven Wartinbee

COL ’15
Age: 19
Hometown: Glendale, Calif.
Major: Government
Minor: Philosophy

What do you do on campus?
Primarily, I play for the Ultimate team, I started my freshman year because I was walking around SAC fair and people yelled at me: “Hey, you’re tall. Come sign up.” I thought, yeah, this’ll be a fun way to spend some afternoons on the lawn tossing Frisbee. And then they said, “We’ll have our first practice next week.” This team practices? Within a month, it was just a complete transformation from what I had expected to what was going on. My first team was on the development team, the lower level of the game. I made the A team this year; it’s so different: two to three times a week, two hours each time. We have track workouts, we have workouts on our own, and I just never expected that. It’s the best thing that’s happened to me.

Where and with whom do you feel most comfortable?
Probably go back to Ultimate: anyone on the team. There’s 25 of us; I count them among my best friends. As for location, I live in Nevils. I have a couple of balconies overlooking Healy, so it’s nice to just sit out there. I really like the esplanade. It’s really comfortable.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
That’s a tough question. Probably making the decision to come out here. Everything since then has been fine, but making the decision to come from Los Angeles to here. I’ve never spent much time on the East Coast before, and I don’t have any family. My closest family’s in Michigan, so it was a big shift.

What change do you think you’ve consciously made in your life and why?
I was definitely less academic oriented my first two years coming here, because it was the first time I’ve been away from my parents and I spent a lot of time out with my friends and probably didn’t put as much time into my studies as I needed to. But over the summer and this year, I’ve definitely buckled down. I was working a full-time job at a law firm back in L.A., and when I got back here, I noticed I could still have fun while working.

Do you feel obliged to be busy at Georgetown?
No. Honestly, I’m taking five courses, all of which … I wouldn’t say they’re extremely difficult, but a lot of them require a lot of studying. But if I get my work done and I know the material, I don’t feel like I need to be doing anything other than hang out with friends.

What are your plans after Georgetown?
Still kind of up in the air. I’m looking to take the LSATs soon and will probably go straight to law school. I was considering a gap year, but for the most part, I probably will end up straight to law school. I would love to stay in the Georgetown area at least for a few years after I graduate, but I’m probably going to end up in L.A.

What do you hope Georgetown will help you accomplish?
Probably just jump-start from here. I know the friendships I’ve made here are incredible, and there are a lot of connections to be made from alumni that I’ve met, friends, professors, spending time with professors, talking to them outside of class.

Do you feel like you fit in at Georgetown?
Yes. Maybe not to the preppy stereotype culture that we have, but outside of that.

Do you think that stereotype exists?
Not really. I had two completely opposite friends in my freshman year. One Sunday morning, I was in sweats and a T-shirt, and one of my friends had walked in the same. So I knocked on my friend’s door and asked him if he wanted to go; we had to wait ten minutes while he put on like a suit. That’s interesting. There are definitely a lot of different areas where people come from in that respect.

Interview by Hanaa Khadraoui