Emme Enojado can—and does—do it all. She’s overloading most semesters, works 15 hours/week at the Center for Career Development/Educational Resource Center as the Public Relations Team Captain, is the President and Founder of BU Design Club, and serves as the Vice President of BU Mind and Brain Society. Additionally, she is a CAS Dean’s Host, sings at Marsh Chapel’s Sunday masses as part of the BU Catholic Center, and was part of the social media team that founded BU Neuroscience’s Instagram, a project she’s especially proud of. “It’s been so amazing watching the Instagram account grow, and it holds close to my heart,” Enojado said. (Follow it @buneuro).
Her extracurriculars and job experiences are all passion projects of sorts. As PR Team Captain, Enojado tackles a lot of different roles and responsibilities: “I manage various design, advertising, and social media projects with the aim of engaging students in the resources that are available to them at the CCD and ERC,” she explains. The job is particularly rewarding for her— not only does she feel strongly about the services and opportunities she advertises, but she loves the work environment and her coworkers too. “The team I work with here is phenomenal,” she gushes, and “the student ambassadors come from all different areas of studies and it’s great getting to collaborate with them and hear different ways of thinking and perspective.” Professionally, she loves that as a Student Ambassador she gets to work on a project with a staff member. Specifically, her role is to work with the CCD Marketing and Communications Manager to “create CCD Instagram content and guide creative vision and brand identity.”
Credit: Emme Enojado. Enojado and her friends exploring Vermont.
Her involvement in other activities is also centered around her passions. BU Design Club was an intuitive move for her, as a lover of design. The organization welcomes students of all majors, much like BU Mind and Brain Society, which recognizes that the brain is central to everyone’s life.
As put-together and high-achieving as Enojado is, she’s still your everyday college student. She’s struggled through the same things we all deal with, starting with deciding what to major in. She’s majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Visual Arts, but it took a while for her to get there. She came into BU as a neuroscience/philosophy major, switched to a graphic design major with minors in biology/psychology, and then switched again. She likes to joke that she didn’t really change her major at all— she started with neuro and is still neuro now. It’s a subject that has fascinated her since she was young: she recalls reading “How to be a Genius” when she was 10. “It was basically a neuroscience 101 book for kids,” she explained. “It made me realize that the human brain is one of the world’s newest and most undiscovered frontiers in science, and I wanted to be in on it.”
Credit: Emme Enojado. Enojado and her little sister, one of her favorite people on Earth, at Tatte.
Here’s where her extracurricular involvement has had a profound impact on her— “My favorite part of [BU Mind and Brain Society] is the community – during the first two years of my undergraduate degree where I was uncertain about what I should major in and what career I wanted to pursue (an existential crisis that I believe a lot of college students undergo) – MBS and the friendships that I’ve made have remained a steady and strong constant.”
To all those who are unsure about what they want to do/major in, a spiral Enojado says she’s familiar with, her biggest piece of advice is to talk to people— “talk to as many mentors, upperclassmen, professors as you can.” She’s also an advocate of developing skills and interests through extracurricular work and remembering to take it easy sometimes: “Explore other out of classroom opportunities where you can get a taste for another career you’re interested in exploring. Also always remember that major doesn’t equal career, and don’t stress out about making a decision too much (you’ll find one, just focus on doing the best you can in your classes and extracurriculars).”
With so much on her plate, in terms of academics, work, and extracurriculars, Enojado places a lot of importance on ensuring you don’t overwork yourself to avoid burnout. She definitely has to actively manage her time, and she likes to do this by using Todoist and Google Calendar. She tackles her schedule by blocking off time for everything: “I log nearly everything into my Google Calendar – starting off with classes, meetings, work, and other set times I’m supposed to be somewhere, and then fitting in gym/run time, evaluating what assignments I have for which classes and scheduling in specific times to work on those, etc.” She’s aware that this can make her days look chaotic and overwhelming, and when she feels like this, she’ll close out of the tab and just take it assignment by assignment.
Credit: Emme Enojado. Enojado at the Cambridge Half Marathon 2019.
She also uses her free time to destress and spend quality time with her friends. Her favorite destressing activity is running— “I find a lot of comfort and power in it because it’s a time where I let my body do all the work and my mind can just not think and let go of external pressures for a moment,” Enojado explains. “It’s a freeing mental solo sport, and being able to run around Boston has in turn given me such an incredible sense of admiration and gratefulness for this beautiful city.” Despite the love for Boston she has developed over time (she hails from Houston, Texas), she makes it a point to get out of the BU bubble every now and then, whether it’s by exploring New England during monthly weekend getaways or just heading out to a local coffee shop/J. Crew sale/spontaneous trip to Harvard Square’s Border Cafe with her friends.
Her advice to everyone is to try not to lose yourself in the intimidating, overwhelming high achievement culture at BU. “Our worth isn’t tied to what we do, what our GPA is, how impressive our resume is, or what we look like,” she said, “It’s tied to who we are and how we love. So pursue what you love, invest in relationships, make your bed (it’s the little things that count), call your parents, and trust that your abilities and more will lead you where you’re meant to be.”
Key takeaway: “Take each day as it comes, try your best, keep moving forward.”
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