Stephanie BearjarMajors: EconomicsHistory, and International Studies

Minor: Applied Statistics

Hometown: Lusby, Maryland

After entering the Honors College in August 2007, I immediately began working towards certain goals that I had set my senior year of high school. While I was not quite sure where college would take me, I chose the Honors College because of the resources it could offer me once I figured out where I wanted to go. The curriculum itself prepared me completely for taking classes both at Georgetown and abroad. Through the Honors College Achievement Fund I was able to study at Georgetown and intern at a public-private cooperative during the summer of 2009. I again received the achievement fund to study abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia in the spring of 2010. Studying in Russia altered the way I interact with the world and interpret history and current events; it was an inexplicable experience and it would have been nearly impossible without the Honors College! It was through the RECHC that I discovered many of the opportunities of which I took advantage and through the Honors College that I made connections which helped me further my education and goals.

Being in the Honors College is not unlike receiving a pre-approval letter from a credit card company. Professors already are a little more willing to take a risk with you, allow you into a higher level course than your year of study may suggest, or invest time in a thesis with you than they may be if you were not in the Honor College. As I work consistently with the economics, history, and political science departments, I have received a great deal of help navigating my education largely because these departments are incredibly kind; however, I have been able to triple major because I have received overrides for classes which would have been far harder to obtain without being in the HC.

Following graduating, I desire to return to Russia to study for a period of time and then will likely attend law school. The problem I'm facing being a senior graduating from the Honors College is that I am forced to choose between so many exciting options!