Sabrina Marinescu ’11

I was born in Constanta, Romania and by the time I visited AUP, I knew for sure that I wanted to study here. During that trip, Oana Toma (’11), another Romanian student, gave me a campus tour, and we’ve been best friends ever since. This was my first time living in a foreign country and by myself, so it was a comfort to talk to her and be reassured that everything was going to be amazing—which it was! I had never been in an American school system before or been given the option of picking my own courses, so my first year was mostly about trying to get a better understanding of who I was and what I wanted, as I loaded myself up with extra classes to really discover what I wanted to major in.

I treasured the multicultural experience of AUP: meeting people from different parts of the world, discussing everything from politics to anthropology, hearing the side of the story that your part of the world never tells, realizing that no matter the nationality, we’re all essentially the same. Being here pushed me to observe subjects and events from an increasingly international point of view, so that I now possess a more nuanced perspective on peoples, cultures, and differences. I remember in my first year being taken to see a new neighborhood in the Belleville area of Paris, one which my professor believed to have great potential, and which he made us promise to visit again before we left Paris, so that we could see its transformation for ourselves. I did as he asked and it was a wonderful last lesson to take away from AUP, the swiftness with which cities evolve in today’s world.

The friends I made at AUP have become friends for life: this summer alone, I’ll be attending the weddings of two AUPers! I also keep in touch with Professors Gail Hamilton and Diane Bonneau, some of the best teachers I’ve ever had. (It’s because of Professor Bonneau that I actually understand accounting, something that I’d previously believed impossible.) Being at AUP and living in Paris gave me the courage to dream big and grow up. At the time, many Parisians viewed Romanians through the lens of negative stereotypes, which only made me stronger and more ambitious: I was determined to prove the naysayers wrong. This also probably served as the impetus for my deciding to return home after my studies and start a business in Bucharest, since I wanted to work alongside the younger generation and be part of the positive change that’s now taking place in Romania.

After graduation, I completed a master’s at Istituto Marangoni [a private fashion and design school]. I now manage two health and beauty businesses that I founded with two childhood friends (Panacēa Urban Apothecary, an all-natural skincare brand, and The FOOD Project, a superfood dietary supplement brand), I’m running the local franchise of Quintessentially, the largest members-only concierge service in the world, and last year, Forbes Romania named me one of its “30 under 30”. Without AUP, I wouldn’t have known where to start.