Savannah

Compared to many AUP students, my background is almost provincial. I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, my dad is half-Welsh, half-French—Gaullois and Gallois, very confusing when I was a child—and my mom is English. My parents had traveled all over the world during their childhoods and were happy that my sisters and I could stay in one place as we grew up, even blessing me with the name of the city in which I was born!   

 Our summers spent visiting friends and family in the UK and France helped kindle my wanderlust and by college application time, I was ready to see new cities, countries, and cultures. During the summer before my last year in high school, I toured universities in Europe, with Paris as my last stop. I only had two days to visit AUP and maybe it was the perfect late-July weather or the fact that I could walk from the banks of the Seine to the campus in five minutes but by the time I left, I knew that I wanted to be a part of this community.

As soon as AUP introduced the History, Law, and Society major as a kind of pre-law track, I immediately switched into it and dove into ticking off all of its requirements. However, I soon felt that I wasn’t taking sufficient advantage of AUP’s many opportunities and started exploring other disciplines, including Gender Studies through Professor Lissa Lincoln’s “Contemporary Feminist Theory” class, which inspired me to weave my passion for women’s rights into my two majors. I’ll never forget how beautiful it was to see our small class come together to organize a conference in honor of End Violence Against Women Day, spread awareness, and facilitate dialogue amongst students and faculty.    

 I think that when you decide to attend AUP, you’re committing yourself to a change in lifestyle and after nearly three and a half years of acclimating to a culture that’s completely different from the one in which I grew up, I’ve learned an indispensable life skill: adaptability. This has also led to my increased involvement in campus life. I’ve been a Student Ambassador for the Admissions Office and Vice Chair of the Activities and Clubs Committee, and I recently ran for Vice President to work more closely with the Student Senate to help improve a community that has given me unrivaled life experiences and opportunities.

As I reflect on my time at AUP—early onset nostalgia, don’t you know—I remember an International Student Leadership Conference in Madrid that I attended with four other AUP students. I look back on that first night, standing on a beautiful rooftop terrace, meeting international student leaders from schools like the American College of Thessaloniki and the American University of Beirut, and I know that much like that weekend, I’ll never forget this school.