Check out this week’s Campus Celebrity: Sara Gleason! This PICA scholar has a huge heart and spends her free-time volunteering in New London or learning the guitar! Not only is she making the world a better place through her volunteer work in the local community, but is a do-gooder for the planet who spent time working on an organic farm in France. As if that isn’t cool enough, her personal motto is “eat dessert first” something I think we can all agree with. Read on to learn about her awesome internship experience, post-grad plans, and more!
Class Year: 2015
Hometown: Concord, MA
Major: Psychology and PICA Scholar
Minor: Philosophy
Extracurricular activities: This semester I am a member of the Outdoors Club, and I volunteer at the AXS Center for young adults in New London. In my free time, I am trying to learn guitar, and I am working on a latch hook rug.
Tell us more about your unique study abroad! I took a semester off and went abroad last spring. I spent two months in Paris, where I did a homestay and studied French at an international language school. And then I met up with a couple of Conn friends, and we WWOOFed (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) at an olive farm near Nice, France and traveled around Europe together. It was amazinggggg!!
It seems impossible to top your study abroad, did your junior internship even compare? Yes! I was in Cape Town, South Africa for my CELS internship this past summer. I interned at an NGO called GOLD Peer Education, where I worked with some really amazing people and learned a lot. But I mostly just loved being in Cape Town. Over the course of the summer, I went shark cage diving, whale watching, bungee jumping, wine tasting, surfing, and more. So many adventures!
Tell us about your PICA project: My PICA project is on the mental health of children orphaned by AIDS in South Africa. I am currently doing an independent study in psychology on the topic.
Guilty Pleasure: Well I still enjoy watching Glee, which has become somewhat of a guilty pleasure because no one else seems to like it anymore. I also like One Direction.
What is your spirit animal? Some of my friends have told me they think my spirit animal is a teacup pig, which I can accept. I imagine they are pretty spunky.
Personal motto: Eat dessert first.
Favorite place on campus: Maybe under the weeping willow-like tree in front of Laz. I only recently went under there for the first time, but it is pretty magical.
Do you have a favorite class or professor taken at Conn? I think my favorite ever class at Conn is one that I’m taking now, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Professor Armey (from Brown). It’s a long Thursday night class, so that fact that it’s my favorite is saying something. My favorite professor that I’ve had a Conn might be Professor Rivkin, who I had for my freshman seminar. She is just the kindest person ever.
What is one thing you have not checked off your Conn bucket list yet? I have not yet gone to the Mystic Aquarium, which is something I have wanted to do ever since I got here. So I gotta make that happen.
What are your post graduation plans? Well, I would like to go to grad school for psych and be a bartender in a couple of years. But as for the years between now and then, I don’t have much of a plan. I just hope to make some $$.
How do you feel about being Campus Celebrity? I don’t know if I am an actual campus celeb, but I appreciate the birthday nomination from my very thoughtful friend (and real campus celeb, I think), Ali Rice.