Name: Victoria MessinaAge: 21Year: seniorMajor: journalism Hometown: Tampa, FL
Her Campus: What is your position on campus?Victoria Messina: “As of January 2015, I will officially be the Campus Correspondent/Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus UFL!”
HC: How did you get involved with Her Campus UFL?VM: “I started out my freshman year as a writer for HC UFL. I heard about it through a friend and thought it’d be a great opportunity to get some solid writing experience under my belt. I’m glad Cara, the former Campus Correspondent, gave me a chance because I was just a helpless little freshman with no prior writing clips. After a semester of writing, I worked my way up the ranks by becoming assistant news editor, followed by news editor the next semester and senior editor this past semester.”
HC: What is your favorite part of Her Campus UFL?VM: “I always love any opportunity to reach out to the student body to educate girls about what Her Campus is. Whether it’s tabling in Turlington or putting on a huge event like last year’s Love Your Body Day, getting the chance to connect with our readers in person is just really awesome.”
HC: And the biggest challenge?VM: “Balancing my time is always a bit of a struggle for me. I find myself favoring my Her Campus to-dos more than my schoolwork sometimes because it’s way more fun to read and edit a Man Crush Monday article than it is to learn about new product strategy for my marketing class. It’s all about managing my time well, which I’ve gotten a lot better at this semester.”
HC: What other things are you involved in on campus?VM: “I’m a Style Guru Intern for CollegeFashionista, a website that focuses on fashion trends on college campuses around the world. I love CF because it allows me to keep up with my creative writing skills on a weekly basis, and it gives me an excuse to walk up to random people and take photos of their stylish outfits. I’m also a sister of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, and through that I’ve been a dancer for Dance Marathon for the past two years. I’m planning to be a four-year dancer because I love it so much!”
HC: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?VM: “Hopefully married and with a job that I truly enjoy. My main priority has always been happiness, so that’s always the end goal for me. Going into an industry like journalism, I knew that money wouldn’t be in the forefront, so I don’t expect to be living in a mansion with 10 kids and a fancy car. I’d be perfectly content living in a cozy and quaint apartment in New York.”
HC: What is your dream job?VM: “Editor-in-Chief of Seventeen magazine. Watch out, Michelle Tan!”
HC: What are your hobbies?VM: “On the off chance that I actually have free time, you’ll probably find me longboarding, painting, shopping (most likely at PacSun), writing for my blog or dragging friends on a random adventure with me. Like one night I climbed up the side of the O’Connell Center with friends just because we were bored, so that was fun.”
HC: What is your favorite thing to do in Gainesville?VM: “I love spending time away from campus in downtown or in the forests nearby. Don’t get me wrong; I love UF’s campus. But getting out of the bubble every now and then is so refreshing and helps me de-stress. An ideal day for me would include hiking through Paynes Prairie or Loblolly Woods, eating at Satchel’s or The TOP for dinner and getting popsicles at The Hyppo. This past year, I really discovered how much I just love Gainesville. There are so many fun, quirky places to explore.”
HC: What is your favorite food?VM: “That’s a hard one to narrow down. I really love coffee ice cream. There was actually a phase in my life when I ate coffee ice cream every single night after dinner for like four or five years. So basically I should weigh about 200 pounds. But other than ice cream, I love pasta and anything Asian, especially Bagels and Noodle’s pho ga.”
HC: Who is your celebrity crush?VM: “Dylan O’Brien from Teen Wolf. He might not know it yet, but we’re getting married.”
HC: Who is your role model?VM: “My Nana is such an inspiration for me. She didn’t get a college education and grew up without a mother as a role model, but she still made something of herself. She’s an amazing wife, mother, grandmother and friend who always puts other first. She’s also really in touch with her faith, which makes me want to excel in that part of my life.”
HC: What advice would you give to new students?VM: “Step out of your comfort zone every once in a while. Going to a big school like UF, it can be easy to just settle and get lost in the mix, and I know that’s something I was really scared of during my first semester. I knew I wanted to be involved and not just be another random face in the crowd of 50,000. My advice is to get involved both in your major and outside of it. Joining clubs that have to do with your major allow you to meet people with similar interests and form a network. But at the same time, being part of an organization that has absolutely nothing to do with your major is a nice way to distract yourself from your schoolwork in a good way every once in a while.”
HC: What is your favorite memory at UF so far?VM: “It’s honestly so hard to pick just one, so I’ll name a few. The UF vs. LSU game my freshman year was absolutely insane. I was so overwhelmed by the energy in The Swamp and I was just hugging random people every time we scored. That was one of those defining moments when I was like, ‘Wow I go to UF… This place is pretty sick.’ A few other random memories that stick out to me were seeing Cherub in concert for free, discovering the beautiful rock quarries and going on a roadtrip to Alabama this past year. Oh, and this past Gator Growl was amazing. My mom and I are huge Ludacris fans, so she came to Gainesville for the concert. I’ll spare you the details, but there may or may not have been twerking involved.”