Sol Chiara Rivas Lopes ’23 came to 圣赌博平台网站大全 looking for a way to stand out from the crowd.
如何:
作为赌博娱乐平台网址大全的新毕业生, 索尔会说四种语言, has an international background stemming from Argentina and Brazil, 修读了三个国际研究专业, 政治科学, 和法国, 在海外留学期间为人权而战, and has her sights set on a master’s degree in public policy.
“This is something that's very ingrained in 赌博娱乐平台网址大全’s culture,索尔说。 of her versatile journey. “Most people that I know here have double majors at least, and triple majors aren’t uncommon. You're in an environment that really encourages the sort of intellectual pursuit that makes you stand out.”
但在赌博娱乐平台网址大全， 杰出的人 students like Sol also get the chance to 找到 something just as valuable: places to 适合.
寻找路径
作为一年级学生, Sol might have known what she wanted to study—政治科学, 国际研究, 语言, 还有文学——但她不知道该写什么 do 毕业后的那些科目.
“成长, 我一直都有一种“全球性的东西”,“因为我出生在阿根廷, 然后去了巴西, 我是在双重国籍下长大的. So I knew that I wanted to work with something that was international and global,索尔说。. “I even thought about being pre-law, but I just realized that I wasn't interested in being a lawyer.”
Sol might have spoken multiple 语言—Portuguese, 西班牙语, and English while picking up French along the way—but she had no idea 跟谁说呢 at school as a young international student still waiting on her green card.
“当我第一次搬到美国的时候.S. [在高中]，我真的很讨厌它，”索尔说. “I felt weirdly ‘in between’ because I didn’t consider myself fully American, and I wasn’t a U.S. 公民. 虽然我现在认为自己主要是拉丁裔, 尤其是巴西人, I still didn’t really see myself as Latina at the time. Growing up, where I lived in Brazil, I was just a white girl. 所以有一段时间, I really struggled because the way I perceived myself all my life was different to the way others perceived me now.”
在赌博娱乐平台网址大全，索尔找到了应对这些挑战的方法. “Right from my first visit, I felt like I saw myself on campus. 赌博娱乐平台网址大全 felt like a very welcoming community,” she says.
Sol felt particularly welcomed in the fields of 政治科学, 国际研究, 和法国, 哪一种语言成了她的第四种语言. While the first two fields were part of Sol’s plan as a first-year, her love of language and literature drove her to look beyond French as a minor and take it on as a third major.
“I’ve tried to take one French class a semester because it’s like a muscle: If you don't train it, 你会失去理智的,索尔说。. “作为一个热爱阅读的人, 爱的书, I really enjoyed being able to take literature classes in French. 和 because 赌博娱乐平台网址大全 focuses on the liberal arts through our 途径的课程, I was also able to explore other interests without necessarily giving up what I wanted to do primarily.”
Sol (far 正确的) stands with modern 语言 and literatures professor Rita Urquijo-Ruiz, Ph.D., (正确的) and other students after the 2023 Honor Awards Convocation.
多亏了Pathways和文科环境, which encourages interdisciplinary collisions instead of overly focusing on narrow career avenues, students like Sol also get to discover how academic crossover can help them flourish. She started homing in on a future career in public policy analysis while developing a diverse set of skills through other subjects.
“Because I like reading books, I love analyzing stuff,索尔说。. “Literature is such a big mirror to a lot of political developments and societal developments, so it was actually super helpful with my 政治科学 stuff. It seemed every semester that the themes of all my classes just meshed really well together. It’s like each subject was giving me a different lens to view the same lesson.”
实践学习
很快, Sol’s analytical skills were standing out so well that professors were coming to her with opportunities to apply her skills outside the classroom.
赌博娱乐平台网址大全 is known not only for having acclaimed faculty but also for having acclaimed faculty that want to work in partnership with undergraduates. 举个例子，当索尔在一篇论文中拿了高分 彼得·奥布莱恩博士.D., the 政治科学 professor started presenting her with opportunities to advance her 政治科学 career.
“My first class with him, I was actually having a terrible semester,索尔说。, 笑. ”他说, 出了名的 严厉的评分者. 和 I wrote this paper for him, and I got an email back that was like, ‘Okay, not bad!’结果是a -. He also mentioned he wanted to talk to me after class one day, and I got all scared. But it turned out he wanted to nominate me for a Fulb正确的 Diversity Initiative internship that brings an exchange of German students to campus.”
As Sol starred in this role and kept starring in her classes, she noticed something else: O’Brien (and other faculty) kept pushing her towards new opportunities. After turning in another stellar paper on social capital in Italy, 例如, O’Brien sent her and other classmates with similarly themed works to present at the Southern Political Science Association Conference.
“I think that's something that happens very often at 赌博娱乐平台网址大全, where students might not have the insight or the knowledge to be able to 找到 these internships or opportunities, 但是教授会看到你的, 意识到你是合适的人选, 连接你,索尔说。. “像奥布莱恩这样的教授, 当他们看到你做得很好, 他们积极建议, ‘嘿, 你们应该分享这个, 你应该曝光它, 你应该把它放在战场上.”
我只想说, Sol says she developed a close working partnership with O’Brien, 她说为了谁, “我认为我完成了我最好的学术工作.”
这些类型的连接, 赌博娱乐平台网址大全师生之间的关系, 不要在期末成绩公布后才结束. They don’t even end when students cross borders and oceans, thousands of miles away.
After developing some data analysis and quantitative reasoning skills in a research methods class, 索尔决定去斯特拉斯堡留学, 法国, where she also completed an internship with the Council of Europe, the continent’s largest and leading human 正确的s organization. “I wanted to be in a city that was so important to Europe, 与布鲁塞尔一道, 因为它有欧洲议会,索尔说。. “I knew that there I could see how politics worked, and having an internship there really solidified public policy analysis as what I wanted to do with my life.”
和, while attending a rally for French President Emmanuel Macron during that study abroad period, Sol thought her 政治科学 professor would get a kick out of seeing his student out in the field.
“我在网上给奥布莱恩留言, ‘嘿, 我们现在正在马克龙的集会上,’ because we talked a lot about him during our European politics class,索尔说。, 笑. “所以这是一件有趣的事情.”
左 Sol snaps a quick selfie at a rally for French President Emmanuel Macron at a cathedral square in Strasbourg, 法国. 正确的 Sol (center) and her friends pose for a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower.
和 sure enough, coming back from study abroad, Sol found more opportunities waiting with O’Brien.
“I’ve been doing research with him through an independent study, and he's very proactive in calling students to work with him,索尔说。. “和 I think that helps you succeed a lot as a student. 教师 really create those opportunities that will make you stand out and develop skills that are helpful, not only in my internships but also for getting into graduate school.”
一生的关系
As she was making strides at 赌博娱乐平台网址大全 towards discovering her professional place in the world, Sol says she also found herself connecting more deeply to her peers and friends outside the bounds of the classroom.
“For someone who wasn’t used to … having a community that embraced me, 我在赌博娱乐平台网址大全找到的,索尔说。.
作为一个拉丁人, Sol says she enjoyed building connections through organizations like the 圣赌博平台网站大全 Latino Association (TULA). “We have those communities where you can be with people who are similar to you when you need that type of connection,索尔说。, 谁担任该组织的副总裁. “但我们并不是孤立自己. 比如TULA, 我们有很多活动, and they're always open to other members of the community, 不仅仅是拉丁裔.”
“和 that’s the most fun way to celebrate your culture,索尔补充道, “当你们能够集体行动的时候. Not only with the people who share in it but also by being able to share it with others.”
Sol (far 正确的) and some of her fellow 圣赌博平台网站大全 Latino Association members pose for a photo before performing at Viva las Américas.
Finding this openness at 赌博娱乐平台网址大全 was crucial for a student like Sol, who had an aforementioned tough time grappling with questions of identity and belonging. 和 this openness also encourages connection with other organizations, allowing students to explore cross-culturally with the same ease as they can hop across academic disciplines.
“很多赌博娱乐平台网址大全的学生都去参加排灯节活动, 这真的很有趣, 或者胡里节的色彩,索尔说。. “At 赌博娱乐平台网址大全, I think that everybody's not only able to 找到 自己的空间还要来 选择 他们自己的空间. You’re invited and encouraged to participate in all sorts of things. It’s really rewarding, not only academically but also personally”
通过这一系列的联系, Sol says she finally found something to use her four 语言 for that’s just as important as fighting for international human 正确的s or solving diplomatic crises: speaking them with friends.
“My best friend 正确的 now, she's from Colombia, and I met her while I was studying abroad,索尔说。. “So, we speak a lot in 西班牙语, and there are very few friendships that I do get to have in 西班牙语. 和 there's this connection that's deeper because of that.”
增长的未来
Sol’s now headed to a Master of Public Policy program at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. 并且精通四门语言, 国际实习, and multiple hard-earned ace research papers under her belt, Sol says she’s ready to take the next step towards her future career.
不管她去哪，她都会知道的 她属于.
“赌博娱乐平台网址大全 has been helpful in helping me carve out my space, my place in U.S. 整个社会，”索尔说. “赌博娱乐平台网址大全’s environment really fosters academic growth, 个人成长, and professional growth in a way that’s just so very specific to 赌博娱乐平台网址大全,索尔说。. “It's kind of this ‘perfect mixture’ and ‘perfect condition’ of things that allowed me to grow in a way that I don't think I would've elsewhere.”
索尔的空间是什么样的?
“Now that I’ve graduated, I actually wouldn’t say I'm an international student anymore,” she says. “我是一个有国际背景的人.”
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