Lala Thaddeus is killin’ it. A dedicated student, peer and leader, Lala throws herself in to everything she does with enthusiasm and positivity. She is determined to make the most of her Emerson experience and find her own path.
Lala Thaddeus is a sophomore Communication Studies major with a minor in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. Fun Fact: This is Lala’s first semester as a Communication Studies major. She recently switched out of the Journalism department to pursue other interests. She is involved in multiple organizations on campus, namely Atlas Magazine and Generation Citizen, an organization that sends college students to local middle and high schools to discuss democracy and civic action. This semester she is also looking to get involved in two new clubs at Emerson: Habibis, the college’s first ever Arabic culture club, and Emerson Language Learners.
Lala is an international student from Yerevan, Armenia, where she has lived for the past eight years. Before Armenia, Lala lived in Baghdad, Iraq, which is where she was born. While Lala admitted that going to school halfway across the world can feel frightening, it is also incredibly liberating. “I really enjoyed my newfound freedom and anonymity in this city when I first got here,” she said. This decision has allowed her to find a new community in and around Boston, showing her that, as she says, “I’m never really alone and that I always have people looking out for me no matter where I am.”
Lala explained that one of the big reasons she loves Emerson is because everyone is so passionate about what they do. “There are just so many. . . incredible things you can get involved in here, even if a specific activity doesn’t correspond to your major. Emerson makes it really easy for students to discover passions outside their major and also gives them the opportunity to hone their career skills outside of class,” she says.
For example, Lala is currently working on a project that will cement a student-run community engagement initiative into the offered opportunities at Kasteel Well, Emerson’s satellite campus in the Netherlands. The initiative would send Emerson volunteers to local daycare centers to teach English to Dutch children. Lala is currently working with her co-coordinator Lorenzo Rossi to develop a training program for future volunteers that will show students, “How to teach English as a second language, how children acquire second languages and how to teach in general. I’m incredibly excited about this opportunity as it gives me a tangible link to the Castle even though I’m no longer there,” she says.
Lala is excited to finally be back in Boston after a semester abroad, and cannot wait to see what the new semester will bring.