Emily Massel
Year: Sophomore ‘15
Major: International Affairs, Minor in Spanish and Political Communications
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
What brought you to GW?
International Affairs. Coming out of high school I was under the impression that I wanted to go one of two directions – either film production or International Affairs. So I decided to go with International Affairs at the Elliot School.
What organizations are you involved with on campus?
I am a sister of Kappa Delta sorority, the captain and quarterback of my co-ed intermural flag football team, and I am President of the student organization Lemonade Day DC as well as the City Director for Lemonade Day in DC.
What is Lemonade Day DC?
It is a national non-profit organization that’s powered by Google Entrepreneurs nationally. It’s an educational program that serves to introduce 4th through 7th graders to the fundamentals of business and entrepreneurship. The kids are mentored through the Lemonade Day curriculum and write their own business plan for a lemonade stand on Lemonade Day itself, which, in Washington DC, is it April 14th. That’s when these 1,000+ participants will get the opportunity to implement their business plans by setting up, owning, and operating their own lemonade stand.
How do you balance schoolwork and all your other opportunities?
You just don’t sleep? [laughs] No, I don’t know. For me, I tend to catch myself when I put school on the backburner or when I haven’t gone out in a while. It’s never going to be a perfect balance, at least for me, so it’s really about identifying and having other people that will help you identify when the balance is getting too off. It’s constantly correcting the balance.
What are your plans for after graduation?
I’m still kind of figuring out what I’d like to do. I definitely have always had a passion for event planning and business and now, running this financial literacy program and bringing it to DC, I realized that I do have a passion for education and education reform. So I could see myself doing something with that. I’m really interested in communications, broadcasting, marketing. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.
What would you say is your greatest achievement so far?
Yesterday was the first mentorship session so I got to go on site to a couple different ones, and that was pretty amazing for me to start seeing the product of months and months of work. Just to see these kids starting the curriculum, that was a pretty great feeling. And also to start seeing the mentors, the GW students, get excited about teaching these kids. So I guess I would say my greatest achievement right now is just seeing people get excited about Lemonade Day and the fact that I’ve been able to have enough help and put in enough effort and passion to see not just GW’s campus mobilize, but to see the whole city really mobilize around helping DC youth.
What is your highest aspiration?
My highest aspiration? To live a happy and full life. I don’t think I could say anything specific because life changes so frequently. It’s kind of a day to day thing. I couldn’t have told you a year ago that I would be dedicating my entire life to bringing a financial literacy program to DC so immediately my highest aspiration is just to see Lemonade Day on April 14th, but generally speaking I don’t think I could say I have one highest aspiration. Just to make moves and be happy.