Hadley Alter, St. Louis native and lover of quality food, is a passionate and determined student. Her varied interests have been driving forces behind her leadership endeavors and have shaped the person that she is today.
In high school, she was the sports editor of her yearbook, Co-President of the Green Club and a member of DECA, a business club.
“I actually did some really cool projects through [DECA]. One in particular was called the bracelet project…essentially we sold these little beaded bracelets that are made by women in the Samburu tribe in Kenya. They sell for two dollars, so if you buy ten, that 20 dollars is enough to fund one student’s school breakfast for a whole year. It’s such an awesome organization. We sold a bunch of the bracelets and raised over $3,000,” she said.
Hadley was also involved with sports in high school. She was on the tennis team and was an avid snowboarder. She has been snowboarding since she was eight and typically snowboards twice a year with her family. She has been able to keep up her skills and is a proud member of the Ski/Snowboarding club at BU. With the club, Hadley has been to places such as Quebec to snowboard with her peers.
“It was cool to go all the way to Canada, not just because I’ve never been there before, but to experience what it was like to snowboard in a different country was amazing,” said Hadley.
While she is unfamiliar with Canada, Hadley has spent quite some time in New York, where she’s interned at a hat shop in Manhattan for several summers. The first time she interned there was the summer after her freshman year of high school.
“It was cool because I had a lot of independence…I would go get breakfast and then meet [the owner] at the shop and would run errands all day,” she said. Those errands included creating the shop’s Facebook page, buying supplies, dropping off mail, and delivering hats. “The shop was really cool. I know Yoko Ono shopped there from time to time.” This newfound independence and love for the city carried over to her desire to attend a school like BU. In fact, she loved BU so much that she applied early decision.
Now that she has been living in Boston for quite some time, Hadley can confidently say that her favorite things to do include perusing museums, running along the Esplanade, walking around the Boston Common, and enjoying brunch with her friends.
“My ideal brunch is eggs benedict with avocado at Trident Booksellers and Cafe on Newbury Street,” said Hadley.
Hadley is also involved with the HeforShe initiative at BU, spreading the message about gender equality, which is something she is very passionate about. When asked what she is fighting for when it comes to the issue of gender equality, Hadley focuses her ideas on issues in the career field.
“I think that at this point in time, women always have to fight so hard for things like equal pay and respect; they have to fight a lot harder than men for respect. For me, I just feel like if I’m doing just as good of a job as any of my coworkers, regardless of their gender, I shouldn’t be making less money because I’m a woman. I’m interested in film and TV, and that job field is really male-dominated—a lot of men get a lot more credit in that field than women. It’s not very diverse gender-wise. But obviously it’s getting better, the feminist movement has gained a lot of ground,” she said.
And like most students, Hadley is not completely sure of what she wants to major in.
“I like having creative freedom, and I want that within my future job,” said Hadley. However, she has confidently committed herself to pursuing a minor in Spanish, a language she has been studying since sixth grade. “I’d really like to be fluent in two languages. There’s no disadvantage to being able to communicate with all different types of people. I feel like being fluent in another language allows you to appreciate a different culture.”
Her role models, the ones who have helped her become who she is today, are her parents. She admires their sense of adventure, love of traveling, and appreciation for good food.
“They’ve always stressed the importance of family and finding what you love and doing that. That’s something that’s always stuck with me I guess,” she said. So, naturally, her the motto she lives by is ‘do what you love.’ “I’m just trying to find what I love in this crazy world, and I’ll get there some day!”