Asst. Halftime Editors — ;oaquin Martinez, Alex Hwang, Quinn Ross
sports:
Executive Editor Anna Cordova
Sports Editor ;ulia Maurer
Asst. Sports Editors Andrew Swank, Stella Linn
Halftime Editor Eileen Weisner
Asst. Halftime Editors Vince Gude, Lila Gizzie
2esig0:
Design Editor — Paige Benish
Spread Editors — Maggie Zhang
Cover Editor — Michelle Wang
Asst. Design Editors — Pia Cruz, Sophie St Amand, Shabad Singh
copy:
Copy Chiefs — Isabella Baldwin, Madison Weis
Asst. Copy Editors — Lila Wesner, Sonia Pensa, Michelle Lee
mu,time2ia:
Multimedia Executive — Olivia Fanders
Podcast Exec. Producer — Katie Reddy
Podcast Editor — Romy Abu-Fadel
Podcast Asst. Editor — Alaena Hunt
Asst. Photo Editors — Yunji Yun, Ella Qu, Ayman Alam
o0,i0e:
Online Executive Connor Dwin
Asst. Website Editor Apara Chandavarkar
Social Media Editor Maysam Ider
busi0ess:
General Manager Amber Bai
Asst. Manager of Alumni Outreach Elyse van Houten
Asst. Manager of Accounts & Sales Ally Rogers
support:
Associate Editors Sam Monteiro, Emma Cameron, Alex Lalli, Ninabella Arlis, Eileen Miller, Katie Doran
Staff Contributors: Izzy Wagener, Ali Chaundry, Rhea Banerjee, Leah Abraham, Olivia Li, Bradshaw Cate, Cassie Delinsky, Annie Egan, Massimo D'Onofrio, Elle Marinello, Elizabeth Foster, Alexandra Hamilton, Katie Han, Rina Khoury, Michelle Lee, Belinda Li, Aidan Munroe, Rory Myers, Christina Pan, Mahika Sharma, Alexis Tamm, Hannah Yu, Minhal Nazer
Voice editors’ hopes for Super Bowl LX
“As a Denver/Rams fan, this is simply the worst-case scenario, but I’ll settle for this: the Seattle Seahawks dismantling whatever remains of the Patriots’ winning legacy. On paper, this game looks even, but it is not. The Patriots’ path to the Super Bowl was as easy as an NFL schedule can be, while Seattle bulldozed their way through one of the league’s most competitive divisions. If the Seahawks happen to stomp out the Patriots’ dynasty nostalgia, I’ll consider it a win for football.”
-Anna Cordova, Sports Executive Editor
“While I hope the Seahawks will pull away with at least a 15-point win this year, I hope artificial intelligence takes even more of a drubbing and that we can go back to the quintessential Super Bowl ads that don’t turn people into AI seals. The companies that buy Super Bowl commercial advertising know their ads will be seen by approximately 127 million viewers. The positive by-product of this is that commercials are often funnier than regular season ones. However, in 2025 that fell apart as almost every other ad promoted artificial intelligence or was made with it. Let’s hope 2026 isn’t a repeat.”
-Julia Maurer, Sports Editor
“I wish I could say I was excited for the Super Bowl, but as a Detroit Lions fan, my Februaries are characterized by endless disappointment. This year’s championship is perhaps the one I’m least excited for, so I’m reluctantly rooting for a Seahawks win. To be honest, I simply cannot handle the return of the Patriots dynasty directly after we’ve been freed from Patrick Mahomes hell—so to the NFL refs, I know you hate the Lions, but I hope you hate the Patriots more.”
-Aubrey Butterfield, News Executive Editor
What's up with FAFSA? Federal aid shifts leave Georgetown students excited and uneasy
BY JULIA CARVALHO | DESIGN BY KATIE REDDY
Julia Chen (MSB ’29) was working in her parents’ small Chinese restaurant in rural Maryland last spring when she received her financial aid package. She turned to tell her parents, leading with how much aid she was rewarded, rather than how much her family was expected to contribute.
Chen was hoping to postpone any disappointment, considering how expensive Georgetown remained, even with financial aid.
“This is kind of a lot to ask from my parents,” Chen said. “They literally work every single day of their lives just so that me and my sister can have a good education.”
Each year, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) provides students with the opportunity to apply for federal aid in the form of grants, work-study funds, and loans. Georgetown utilizes students’ FAFSA, federal tax returns, and College Scholarship Service Profile, another online application used for non-federal aid, to calculate financial need. For the 2025-2026 academic year, Georgetown’s undergraduate tuition rate was $71,136, a 4.9% increase from the previous year, not including living expenses.
The 2026-2027 FAFSA made a few notable changes to the criteria for receiving financial aid. These shifts are due in large part to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which President Trump signed into law in July 2025. OBBBA made over $1 trillion in cuts to social safetynet programs, while also making changes to federal financial aid.
OBBBA updated the Student Aid Index (SAI), a formula-based number generated from information in the FAFSA form that indicates financial need. Starting this cycle, the SAI will no longer account for the net worth of family-owned businesses with 100 or fewer full-time employees. These small businesses will not be counted as assets that are considered when calculating expected family contributions.
For Chen, these new guidelines could significantly change her SAI and potentially decrease her expected family contribution, as her family’s restaurant falls within this newly defined category.
“It’s been a hard year for us,” she said. “I think this could be really helpful for [my parents].”
Following her sister’s acceptance to Cornell University, where her tuition cost was “basically zero,” Chen’s family assumed she would receive a similar financial aid package at Georgetown. She didn’t.
“My tuition here is pretty high for my family,” she said. “They were going to retire last year. Now they’ve had to work for four more years without me and my sister helping them.”
Chen hopes that a reduction in her expected family contribution, and the subsequent increase in her financial aid, would take some of the pressure off her parents.
OBBBA also tightened Pell Grant eligibility, a grant awarded to undergraduate students displaying exceptional financial need. The grant offers between $740 and $7,395. Moving forward, if an applicant has an SAI greater than or equal to twice the value of the maximum Pell Grant, they will be ineligible, creating a definitive cap. For the 2026-2027 award year, the cutoff will be $14,790.
Alessia Castro Garcia (CAS ’29) is a member of the Georgetown Scholars Program, which provides support and guidance for first generation, low-income students. She is Pell Grant eligible.
“I’m constantly worrying about whether my Pell Grant is going to get affected for this next cycle,” she said, talking about the challenges of federal aid guidelines changing year to year. “I stress endlessly about how I can help my parents pay for my tuition, even though it’s not a lot compared to everyone else.”
“The last thing I want to be for my parents is a burden,” Castro Garcia added.
Mia Rich (SFS ’28), a Pell Grant recipient, shares Castro Garcia’s unease.
“I think that the cap on the Student Aid Index could be very harmful to a lot of students,” she said. “Many families may be classified as sitting above the Student Aid Index, but now need to scramble and contribute all of their income to their child’s education, or the burden may be on the student themselves.”
As of now, Rich has “no clue” whether she will continue to qualify for the Pell Grant this upcoming aid cycle. She hasn’t yet filled out her FAFSA, as the process has “historically been pretty difficult” for
her. Rich’s parents were never married but are now separated, and the form makes it complicated to account for different family situations.
Like Castro Garcia, Rich recognizes that FAFSA guidelines have changed repeatedly in recent years, and with them, the amount of aid students can count on receiving.
“If your ability to pay for college is dependent on federal aid, but that aid could possibly be reduced or revoked year to year, it makes you feel as though your education could be easily taken away at any moment,” Rich said.
With recent changes, Rich believes that the university’s financial aid office should do more to prioritize stability for dependent students, including by making the financial aid award process more transparent.
“Obviously they have a job and can’t pull money out of thin air, but the financial aid office’s inability to understand that, with federal changes, students are experiencing a lot of uncertainty, is very disheartening,” she said.
In a statement, a university spokesperson wrote to the Voice that Georgetown is committed to “ensuring that all students and families can afford the cost of a Georgetown education,” and will consider adjustments to financial aid packages when alerted to new family circumstances.
Students can visit the Office of Student Financial Aid website for more information, including graduate-specific changes that place caps on loans and
Changing immigration policies force international Hoyas to adapt
BY AUBREY BUTTERFIELD AND SOPHIA JACOME
DESIGN BY PIA CRUZ
As members of Georgetown’s class of 2029 eagerly shared their acceptances to social media, one student was setting his accounts to private. For A. (CAS ’29), a Japanese international student living in Singapore, a Georgetown acceptance came with intensive social media screenings to receive his F-1 student visa.
A. removed much of his social media activity from the internet, including any posts that could suggest his political views.
“I had to unlike a lot of the posts that I liked from [The] New York Times, for example, that were pro-abortion, pro-immigrants,” A. said. “That was definitely a hassle.”
This new social media vetting process came after the Trump administration paused all student visa interviews for three weeks in May and June of 2025. The pause caused delays and confusion for students in the class of 2029.
Just a day before matriculation, A.’s student visa was approved. One of his peers, an Indian citizen set to attend Boston College in the fall, was unable to secure his visa in time and ultimately enrolled at a university in the United Kingdom.
As President Donald Trump continues to threaten visa revocations and implement travel bans, international students are forced to constantly adapt and rely on university support to navigate the changes. All students who spoke to the Voice have requested anonymity for fear of jeopardizing their visas and will be referred to by an initial.
A. has found university resources from Georgetown’s Office of Global Services helpful during his transition into college.
“I feel quite supported when it comes to procedures I don’t know about,” A. said. “For example, one to two months before Thanksgiving break, I got an email about how I could prepare if I wanted to leave the country.”
Even with this support, A. made backup plans in response to the antiinternational student rhetoric from the Trump administration. In May 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) barred Harvard University from enrolling international students. In January, Georgetown joined 47 universities
in filing an amicus brief supporting Harvard’s lawsuit challenging DHS.
While A. loves being a Hoya, he has been applying to international universities while enrolled, out of fear that the administration could broaden their international student ban to include current Georgetown students.
“I actually did apply to the UK just in case Trump got worse,” A. said. “My mom was super paranoid, so she forced me to apply.”
As higher education institutions adjust to new policies under the Trump administration, students remain cautious.
K. (SFS ’28), an international student from Europe, said that she hesitates to speak openly about her political views in person, as well as on social media.
“I feel okay talking about what’s going on with my international friends because we’re all in the same boat. But with Americans, you just never know what kind of views the person you’re talking to has on the current administration,” K. said.
Other shifts to their everyday lives include the university’s recommendation that students carry their visa documents while off-campus; this suggestion was publicized in their international student newsletter on Jan. 9.
G. (CAS ’29), an international student from Ecuador, said that this recommendation, while necessary, is a reflection of racial profiling by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
“Having to carry around your documents just because you're existing is not normal,” G. said. “That's something that happens in war-torn nations like during World War II in Germany.”
While G. hasn’t personally experienced discrimination from ICE while studying in the U.S., the administration’s rhetoric about Latino immigrants impacts the treatment of his community.
“For my people, as a Latino, it’s dehumanizing,” G. said. “The conversation has shifted to are they illegal migrants, criminals? Instead of, are they human? That does not bode well for anyone coming here.”
Despite his frustration, protest isn’t an option for G. The university recommended that international students refrain from engaging in protests and
demonstrations during the International Student Orientation.
“Protest is essentially a red line,” G. said. “Understanding that your parents are paying so much for you to be here, even if you want to speak out, it’s just not a choice. Especially not one that you can make knowing it might not just get you deported, but sent to detainment, and result in being sent to God knows where.”
While international students focus on navigating campus life, many are also concerned about their professional futures. The Trump administration has increased the entry fee to $100,000 for H-1B holders, a work visa status for specialty occupations that many international students could have post-graduation.
B. (CAS ’28), an international student from Asia, worries that her international student status could impact her competitiveness in the job market with the recent policy changes.
“I feel like there’s a lot of misinformation or unknowns,” B. said, referring to the internship and job application process under the Trump administration.
Georgetown has over 470 international students on its undergraduate campus, drawing from over 130 countries. A university spokesperson said that Georgetown has a long history of legally advocating for its international students, and continues to dedicate support to the community.
“As a global institution, Georgetown welcomes and supports students from across the world,” the spokesperson wrote. “Georgetown is guided by its mission, which highlights the importance of serious and sustained discourse among individuals of different faiths, cultures and beliefs.”
B. said that her value as an international student is demonstrated in both the classroom and social environments.
“I feel like my upbringing was so different from the people here,” B. said. “It’s always interesting to discuss things with people that have a different point of view and a different lived experience.”
Protect our community, organize against ICE
BY EDITORIAL BOARD
DESIGN BY PAIGE BENISH
The editorial board is the official opinion of The Georgetown Voice. The editorial board operates independently of the Voice’s newsroom and the General Board. The board’s editorials reflect the majority opinion of the editorial board’s members, who are listed on the masthead.
I mmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) murdered two civilians in Minneapolis last month. An untold number of people, including children as young as five, have been abducted from U.S. streets and deported. Immigration agents armed with assault rifles and wartime tactical gear have stormed into homes and schools across the country. The American government has ripped parents away from their children and deployed tear gas outside elementary schools.
ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have escalated their encroachment on human rights under the Trump administration. This editorial board believes that pushing back against the mass deployment of federal agents is a moral imperative for Georgetown students and all Americans.
The stated goal of ICE under the Trump administration is to target “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.” However, substantial evidence indicates no link between immigration status and crime, with some studies even finding a negative correlation. Thus, we must conclude that ICE’s mere existence is a reflection of American xenophobia rather than a response to any genuine security threat. Regardless, ICE’s stated goal is undercut by its practice, with virtually no distinction between criminal and noncriminal immigrant detention.
Make no mistake, ICE is serving both as an extension of American racial policing and as a secret police, acting on the political whims of a fascist regime and the personal vindictiveness of its egotistical leader.
Directly or indirectly, this will affect you. It is our collective social responsibility to respond to it. These are the stakes, and though you may not realize it yet, President Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and every other rightwing sycophant certainly do. If we want to protect any semblance of democracy in the U.S., we must act.
Many Georgetown classes encourage students to explore social and political issues, but access to the classroom is itself a privileged position. We do not use the term privilege in a pejorative way. While on campus, many of us can avoid physical contact with ICE and its actions with minimal effort. The ability to think critically and learn about pressing contemporary issues in a safe environment is important, but it does not substitute the active resistance necessitated by the present moment. For those who are secure, it becomes crucial to demand that personal safety is not a privilege.
At this moment, it is also necessary to remember that not all of our peers are secure. Many students face the impacts of ICE’s crackdown in various ways— whether their own status in this country is threatened, they have family members who have been kidnapped or are living in fear, or they are at risk of being racially profiled on the streets. We owe our efforts to the broader movement, but as Georgetown students, we should also feel responsible to our peers—and that includes fellow students, on-campus workers, and our local Georgetown and D.C. communities.
If you are a U.S. citizen, white, or privileged in other ways, use that privilege to support those who lack it. This can include sharing information about raids and ICE presence through Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid’s hotline at 202-335-1183, or physically and financially supporting immigrant workers and businesses currently under threat in our neighborhood.
Students must also organize on our campus and beyond. Join campus advocacy groups and clubs that work with and for vulnerable populations, such as the Georgetown Coalition for Workers’ Rights and Hoyas for Immigrant Rights. Engage in D.C. by assisting in ICE watch groups, mutual aid, and community organizing. If long-term club commitments are not possible, going to a protest only requires a few hours of free
time. Additionally, solidarity means checking in on your friends and advocating for your peers so they don’t carry the weight of activism alone.
Collective action is necessary to fight this organization. When resisting any institution, but especially those with the amount of power possessed by the state, power is in numbers. The editorial board recognizes that students’ ambitions lead them to a wide range of passions and interests, but we believe that, more than ever, we must prioritize collective organization.
Ultimately, the end goal must be the abolition of ICE and DHS as a whole. At just two decades old, DHS has consistently been tyrannical, designed to skirt accountability and impede Constitutional rights. Abolition is a daunting yet vital goal that will not happen overnight. Until then, we must prioritize supporting our community members, especially those whose personal safety is jeopardized by ICE.
Georgetown’s Jesuit education teaches its students that a better world is possible through caring for each and every person. This editorial board believes that abolishing ICE is essential to providing that care and creating that better world. We must be direct and courageous in this moment. Miller, Trump, Greg Bovino, and all of those involved in ICE’s tyranny are counting on us to ignore what they are doing. They want us to fear our own neighbors, especially those who might not speak the same language or share the same skin color as we do. They are employing violence in a desperate attempt to stave off resistance, hoping we will turn to hate instead of seeing our collective humanity. We cannot appease their violent intimidation tactics. It is our collective responsibility to join together in renewed resistance and community support. Our futures depend on it.
Listen to A$AP Rocky's staticky new album
BY QUINN ROSS | DESIGN BY PAIGE BENISH
When I learned A$AP Rocky was releasing a new album, I experienced a confusing mixture of disappointment and excitement. After such a long hiatus from releasing albums, I was worried this new project would be overproduced nonsense, with the spark and momentum of Testing (2018) having been extinguished by the incessant leaking of his songs and his complicated legal issues—a 2019 assault arrest in Sweden and a 2025 shooting acquittal. The music industry has an evil way of milking artists for every last iota of creativity, and I thought Rocky might have been a victim of this pattern. After listening to Don’t Be Dumb (2026), I now realize just how dumb I was.
Despite my initial doubts, the album is quintessentially Rocky. From start to finish, each song is a fundamental representation of who Rocky is, what he has accomplished, and where he’s going next. In “ORDER OF PROTECTION,” the first track on the record, Rocky tells us that even though “it’s been a lil’ while since [he’s] been in the league / a couple lil’ trials, couple of leaks,” he’s “still in the field like [he’s] runnin’ in cleats.” A$AP Rocky wants us to know that he hasn’t gone anywhere, and his creativity is perhaps as strong as it’s ever been.
In the only skit on the album, “INTERROGATION,” he rejects any criticism of his artistry, stating, “I ain’t gon’ put out no crystal clear garbage / I put out staticky good shit.” The opinions of producers, labels, and other rappers don’t faze Rocky; if he makes music, it’s guaranteed to be his own, not someone else’s concept of what A$AP Rocky “should” sound like.
It’s easy to say, “I’m different,” but the real challenge is actually being different. In 2011, Rocky released his debut mixtape Live.Love.A$AP—a seminal album in the development of cloud rap. Across his next projects, Long.Live.A$AP (2013), At.Long. Last.A$AP (2015), and Testing, he further developed this sound, venturing into different genres such as boom bap, trap, and indie. Don’t Be Dumb builds upon this monumental discography, posing as both a culmination of every new idea he’s explored in the past and an exploration into uncharted sonic territory.
The first song that really hooked me was “HELICOPTER.” The beat’s complex layers begin with a dark, twangy bass piano sound topped with an eerie synth. The whole thing is backed by acidic snares and infectious hi-hats, with two cheeky bells that cut percussively through the whole beat. “HELICOPTER” is the rage rap anthem that I wasn’t expecting from Rocky, as it sounds more like Ken Carson or Yeat than Pretty Flacko.
The next song that really took me by surprise was “PUNK ROCKY,” the lead single from this project. It was responsible for creating the hype around the album, especially with its music video featuring Winona Ryder. This song takes the album in a fresh direction, as it’s unlike anything Rocky has released in the past—an indie anthem reminiscent of “Let’s Go Surfing” by The Drums or “Donchano” by Steve Lacy. It creates a nostalgic indie feeling through lofi drums and sparky basslines, but retains the orchestral, cloudy vibe of an A$AP track with endless layers of echoey vocals. “PUNK ROCKY” flows right into “AIR FORCE (BLACK DEMARCO),” a beautiful chronicle that switches between a hardhitting trap beat and a warbly, omnichordesque atmosphere. The bars speak of the experience of simultaneously being a pretty boy and a city boy, wearing black Air Force 1s and modeling for Dior on the same day.
Towards the end of the album comes my favorite song and the title track, “DON’T BE DUMB / TRIP BABY.” This song samples “Sinking” by Clairo, chopping and slowing her vocals and drums to form a hypnotic backing for Rocky’s raps. The first half is a wonderful love song, as he sings about cutting his hair and getting rid of all his material possessions to stay with the person he loves most. The second half then transitions into an intricate rap flow over a glitchy, bubbling beat that pays a stylistic homage to indie electronica group Sweet Trip. In this half, A$AP seems to describe a more routine way of life with the person he loves, going their separate ways for the day, but remembering their commitment to each other throughout everything.
Don’t Be Dumb is the brainchild of A$AP Rocky, as well as its massive list of
samples and features. Features include Thundercat, Doechii, Brent Faiyaz, and Tyler, The Creator, all providing phenomenal performances. “ROBBERY” would be nothing without Doechii’s witty bars over the Thelonious Monk “Caravan” sample, and “STAY HERE 4 LIFE” is incomplete without Brent Faiyaz’s perfect vocal runs partnered with the beat from Ken Carson’s “mewtwo.” The lineup on this album is top-tier, which can only be attributed to the sheer legacy Rocky has been able to create during his career.
As a whole, Don’t Be Dumb commands us to be unwaveringly ourselves. Rocky defines “dumb” in “DON’T BE DUMB / TRIP BABY” as being “temporarily unable or unwilling to speak,” providing the possibility for musical voices, both young and old, to express themselves with the boost of his enormous platform. This LP is meant to show how eccentric and disparate music can be, while still fitting into the canon of mainstream rap.
Don’t Be Dumb is a spiritual journey; each experimentation takes the music in a distinct direction, and it all culminates in one of the best mainstream rap records in recent history. Even though he left us waiting for eight years, A$AP Rocky blessed us with his most versatile project yet. Don’t be dumb: listen to this album.
From noodles to nails, student entrepreneurs nd their niches at Georgetown
BY ALEXANDRA RISI
DESIGN BY SHABAD SINGH
During his freshman year at Georgetown, Hansel Guo (MSB ’27) struggled to reconnect with his passion for cooking. It was di!cult to cook in the freshman dorms and balance classes with time to pursue his hobbies.
During Guo’s sophomore year, he came up with an idea.
Guo founded Noodles to Guo, Georgetown’s first student-run noodle house, serving dishes like biang biang noodles, jjajangmyeon, and sichuan sweet water noodles. At least once a month, Guo cooks and sells made-toorder Chinese noodle dishes, all from his dorm common room.
Guo is not the only student at Georgetown in his quest to pursue his passions through small businesses. The Voice spoke with four student entrepreneurs about their pursuits and what it’s like to start a business on the Hilltop.
Hansel Guo: Noodles to Guo
With Noodles to Guo, Guo has maintained a lifelong passion and used cooking as a way to connect with his culture.
“Coming from a Chinese family, being born in China, I’ve always been super into learning more about Chinese cuisine,” Guo said. “The flavor palettes within Chinese cuisine are amazing and so diverse.”
When Guo decided to begin a business on campus, he leaned on his friends and other Georgetown students for support. He reached out to upperclassmen with personal shops, learning about the logistical necessities of running a business.
From there, it became a marketing game. Guo focused on making a cohesive
Instagram to give customers a clear idea of his shop. Although he knows it can be “annoying” for students, Guo also printed out QR codes for his Instagram to slide under dorm doors.
“You have to just do whatever it takes to really get your business name out there initially,” Guo said.
And it worked. Guo started selling noodle dishes weekly in the Village C East common room, and amassed a large following of friends and acquaintances who wanted to try his dishes. By his second semester, he felt comfortable enough with the business to begin trying new things.
“I started to pivot into more personal creations, trying to integrate my personal understanding of food and what I like to eat or make for myself into the dishes I sell to my customers,” Guo said. “I think the best part came when I started having enough courage to put my personal ideas into the dishes.”
Noodles to Guo has now amassed over 450 Instagram followers and plans to keep expanding.
Despite this success, Guo faced challenges starting his business. One of his biggest problems was budgeting, especially as a college student. He found it difficult to buy all of the ingredients and tools necessary to get Noodles to Guo off the ground, and had to keep an eye on what he was purchasing and what was selling to ensure his business was a success.
Guo also struggled with time management. In his sophomore year, he was recruiting for a finance job, meaning his days were filled with coffee chats and networking. Running a business seemed like an added stressor.
“I got a lot better at the time management part of things through [my] repeated mistakes, like forgetting to do some homework or forgetting to buy some ingredients,” Guo said.
While Georgetown academics and extracurriculars may prove challenging for business owners, Guo appreciates Georgetown’s tight-knit community as a source of customers.
“I feel like everyone’s like a close circle,” Guo said. “You can always find some sort of connection with a different person.”
Donhee Cui: Freelance photography
For Donhee Cui (MSB ’27), community was the key to success for his work as a freelance sports and events photographer. The university and on-campus organizations often hire him for events, and he also takes on freelance orders.
Cui began his work in photography in high school. Being at a sports-heavy school, he saw a market for taking photos of athletes during games.
“I learned that parents were willing to pay a lot for pictures of their kids,” Cui said.
At Georgetown, Cui found a new outlet for his photography: Rangila, Georgetown’s South Asian philanthropic performing arts showcase. His sophomore fall, he went to all three performances to take photos. Once he shared the photos with his friends participating in the performance, he said that orders from new customers “snowballed.” Now, photography gives Cui the chance to work with a variety of Georgetown community members.
“I like being able to engage very closely with people around different parts of campus,” Cui said. “I think the best part is getting to see all of the unexpected parts of Georgetown.”
The experience has also taught him the value of getting to know people, especially on the Hilltop.
“I would say a lot of my customers come from word of mouth,” Cui said. “Whenever I see someone having a club event or doing headshots on Healy steps, I kind of just show up and say ‘Hey, what club are you guys with?’ and introduce myself.”
He added that campus culture has boosted his business.
“Georgetown students are very proud of being a part of the Georgetown community. I’ve had people come to me specifically because I’m a Georgetown
student,” he said. “So I think Georgetown students supporting other Georgetown businesses is a really big part of it.”
While he’s been able to amass a large customer base, Cui still finds it can be di!cult to satisfy everyone when it comes to photography.
“I’ve had shoots where people maybe weren’t quite satisfied with the photos, and my job was, ‘How can I turn this into a really good experience?’” he said. “That would often come through offering a follow-up shoot, maybe re-edits.”
Cui puts so much effort and pride into his work because the photography business isn’t a side hustle—it’s his main gig.
“It kind of feels like classes have taken a backseat to my work,” Cui said. “Running a business is easy when it’s always on your mind.”
In the future, Cui is interested in photographing for the Premier Lacrosse League and starting a wedding photography business.
Joy Fiske: Pure Joy Nails
Joy Fiske (CAS ’28) sees running her business as an extension of her hobbies. Fiske runs a nail business called Pure Joy Nails, where she designs Gel-X sets.
“It feels like a hangout, and it’s a creative outlet, and I’m getting a little bit of money,” Fiske said.
She was inspired to start the business in part by her own family.
“Being Vietnamese, I tell this joke all the time, ‘It was only a matter of time before someone in my family had to do nails.’ But it is like there’s a bit of a grain of truth in that,” Fiske joked. “In my own network of family and friends, there’s a lot of knowledge about how to do nails.”
Over the past summer, Fiske began learning from this network, hoping to start a nail business in the fall semester. Now, she’s found many clients through word of mouth.
“There’s a lot of demand for cheap nails for girls in college, because obviously, in this economy, people don't really want to be spending that much money,” Fiske said. “There’s a big market here, and I get to tap into that.”
At times, the demand for Fiske’s services is challenging to balance with her other job and extracurriculars. However, Fiske said that this experience has brought her a lot of pride in herself and her abilities.
“When you earn your first paycheck, it's such a ‘Yes!’ moment, and that’s a whole other level when you start your own business,” Fiske said. She appreciates the fulfillment of being her own boss and having control over the entire creative process.
For Fiske, running a business is all about taking that first major step to get started, even if you’re unsure of what the outcome may be.
“It was really like, ‘fake it ‘till you make it.’ And it all just falls into place,” Fiske said.
Levi Merenstein: Game On Activities and Georgetown Tutors
In August, Levi Merenstein (MSB ’28) began Game On Activities, an organization for local elementary schoolers that plans various sports and games for after-school groups, birthday parties, camps, and more. At the beginning of this semester, Merenstein also began Georgetown Tutors, an online math and science tutoring program for high school students.
“When I started this August, I was like, ‘Oh, am I allowed to do this? Am I allowed to just start a business?’” Merenstein said. “I’m 19 years old. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
But Merenstein noticed a need in his community and wanted to respond to it. Last summer, while interning with Flag Star Football, a youth flag football program in D.C., he saw a demand for high-quality athletics programs for kids.
“Parents really want to send their kids to people they trust and people that they know are going to treat them really well,” Merenstein said.
With Game On Activities, parents can fill out a form with the school their child attends and the type of programming they’d like to see. From there, Merenstein and his partners plan sports or games that best suits their clients’ needs.
When starting Georgetown Tutors this semester, Merenstein reached out to teaching assistants from various mathematics and science courses to build a team of 11. He found clients through Facebook Groups and Listservs. Merenstein wanted to make sure the organization had enough tutors so that it would be easy for the tutees to schedule meetings.
think kids, especially in elementary school, rely so much on role models. So if you can be a good role model for kids, that really helps them.”
Merenstein believes Georgetown motivates its students to develop something of their own.
“There’s a push for innovation and a push to go get out there and create something. That’s definitely what helped me motivate just to get started,” Merenstein said.
In his time at college, Merenstein has explored the various resources that Georgetown offers for students interested in entrepreneurship. He currently serves as the co-events director for the Georgetown University Entrepreneurship Club and is a student ambassador for Georgetown Entrepreneurship, which is part of the MSB.
The Entrepreneurship Club can be a great opportunity to learn more about running a business, Merenstein said. The club plans various workshops and speaker events with business-related alumni.
“We get people that are interested in entrepreneurship in the same room, talking to each other. I think that’s when many great things happen,” Merenstein said.
Merenstein encourages students to take advantage of Georgetown resources.
“There’s a big network of alumni, like entrepreneurs and residents who have experience that went here, that are willing to help people. So we always encourage student founders to reach out and just get advice, get support,” Merenstein said.
For Merenstein, running his two startups has been an opportunity to help the people around him.
“The end goal is just to improve customers’ lives,” Merenstein said. “I
Are young people falling in love less?
BY CHIH - RONG KUO DESIGN BY MARIAM OKUNOLA; LAYOUT BY MAGGIE ZHANG
In an era of “no attachment,” more young people are single than ever before, with almost half of people aged 25-34 living without a partner or spouse, according to The Economist. Casual dating has become so ubiquitous that there’s even a slang term for these ambiguous romantic attachments: situationships. Popular culture is also fraught with reminders of the fragility of love—look no further than the chart-topping hits like “Casual” by Chappell Roan and “back to friends” by sombr that cement the emotional scar of situationships in the Gen Z zeitgeist.
Previous generations seem like they were much more likely to commit to long-term relationships in their youth. My parents and most of my friends’ parents met in college or around college age. They dated for a couple of years before eventually getting married, having children, and sometimes getting divorced. But for me, the precarity of the future—with my girlfriend graduating, my uncertain career path, and not to mention attacks on LGBTQ+ marriage—makes partnership feel daunting.
Yet, when I asked Georgetown students, whose relationship statuses ranged from “complicated” to a “happy monogamous relationship,” if they thought young people were falling in love less, their unanimous answer was “no.” This discrepancy between statistics and experience calls for a transformation of how we define love.
When I met Lucie Talikoff (CAS ’27) for breakfast, we caught up on our dating stories before her dog-walking gig.
“I think that the idea that we’ve strayed from partnership and commitment is false,” Talikoff said. “We’ve just moved to a more realistic version of partnership and commitment, which involves truly getting to know someone before you commit to them.”
The reason for the decrease in longterm partnerships could be that people are valuing compatibility more, according to Talikoff.
“Personally, someone’s political views matter to me a lot,” she continued. “If I’m talking to someone and they’re anti-choice, I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m sorry. It would be a waste of both of our time to continue this.’”
Talikoff said she’s open to relationships, but they are not a major priority in her life. Instead, she finds love and appreciation in her friendships.
“I’m well aware that the odds of me finding someone on this campus that I would probably be very compatible with are low,” Talikoff confessed. “That honestly is a great thing, though, because it’s led me to really appreciate my female friendships.”
Similarly, for Sophia Samson (SOH ’27), romantic relationships are not a main priority right now. Samson and I chatted over calamansi juice amid our busy schedules—there’s an understanding between us that we always make time for our friendship.
We often discuss the boundaries that define the line between romantic and platonic love. We agreed that it’s much more socially acceptable now to build your post-college life around your friends than with a romantic partner.
“A lot of it is just a symptom of how feminism has changed and how women are trying to find themselves in ways that aren’t male-centered,” Samson said.
Young people like Samson and Talikoff are prioritizing their professional success and social circles instead of molding their lives around a romantic relationship. Love, it seems, does not have to be an excluding force, but can involve embracing the plurality of different relationships.
For those who do want to find romantic love, though, the pursuit often feels inorganic. C.S. (CAS ’28), who declined to share his full name citing privacy concerns, recently ended a longdistance relationship and is currently in a situationship. C.S. and I both have had experiences with online dating. The sheer number of people who appear on a dating app in a single day trumps any real-life encounters and often makes dating feel like a game.
“I don't know if romantic love is something that you should pursue,” C.S. said. “I think it is something that you discover.”
He’s off dating apps now. For Valentine’s Day, he tells me he’s letting his situationship take its course.
AJ Gluchowski (GRAD ’26) has been with his girlfriend, Yunji, for four months, but he’s no stranger to the rogue land of online dating.
“It just felt bad if you liked somebody and didn’t hear back from them for a week,” Gluchowski said.
Touché. The ease with which people become intimate and then disappear from
each other’s lives cuts deep.
The quick turnover of potential partners on dating apps used to numb me to the prospect of falling in love.
“I’ve used the word ‘nonchalant’ more in the past two years talking about being in a relationship than I would have ever previously,” Gluchowski said. “The ‘thing’ now is being aloof and not being super interested.”
Despite this, Gluchowski intends to build a life with his girlfriend, abandoning vague “concepts of a plan” to work in Scotland. They’re both graduating this year and must decide where to live and what jobs to pursue. Like many in their early twenties, Gluchowski’s peers are a mixed bag of people looking for jobs, employed, and engaged.
“I don’t necessarily know if I’m ready to settle down, but I found someone who would be cool to settle down with,” he shared. “I’m hoping my 20s are the time to explore a little bit. So I will lean into that nonlinearity.”
Still, I tell him, uncertainty is scary.
“The uncertainty is the fun part,” Gluchowski paused. “Falling in love is brave.”
So I’m letting myself fall in love with everything. And you should, too. Fall in love with your lover, your family, your friends, that person you made out with in a drunken stupor, and even the sun as it peeks through the clouds above the Potomac.
Though charming, People We Meet on Vacation fails to stick its landing
BY LUCY MONTALTI
DESIGN BY LUCY MONTALTI
Poppy loves the song “Forever Your Girl” by Paula Abdul, but Alex hates the saxophone. Alex loves his hometown in Ohio, but Poppy hates feeling tied down. Poppy hates running; Alex loves it. Poppy loves spontaneity; Alex hates it.
Poppy loves Alex; Alex loves Poppy.
People We Meet on Vacation (2026) is the latest hit romantic comedy to join the Netflix catalogue. Adapted from Emily Henry’s popular romance novel of the same title, the movie tells the story of Alex (Tom Blythe) and Poppy (Emily Bader), two longtime best friends who have seemingly nothing in common. Alex is firm and pragmatic, gravitating toward stability and comfort over pipe dreams. Poppy, on the other hand, is a free-spirited travel writer who spends her days skipping in and out of expensive hotels and villas on the dime of R&R, the travel magazine she writes for. Their relationship is sustained by their annual summer vacations. The pair upholds this tradition for eight years until a trip to Tuscany unexpectedly detonates their friendship and leaves their presentday relationship with unresolved tension.
The film unfolds through a series of flashbacks, jumping between vibrant trips to the Canadian mountainside, the lively streets of New Orleans, and various scenic European cities, tracing Poppy and Alex’s relationship from their initial New England meet-cute to the present day. Structurally, it’s familiar and e!ective.
Unfortunately, the film falls flat in the one crucial area in which
delivered a compelling performance in
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), is surprisingly stale as Alex. While occasionally likeable, his performance reads less “loveable, old soul” and more “cranky bore.” Leading lady Bader is certainly charming, but she’s bogged down by the film’s writing of her character. Beautiful, spontaneous, and perhaps a little too emotionally candid, Poppy is an unfortunate victim of manicpixie-dream-girl syndrome, with her easygoing disposition used as a tool to bring Alex out of his shell.
The novel, told from Poppy’s perspective, gives readers a look into her inner world, but the film doesn’t adapt to provide that same internal context. Poppy is inarguably the main character, but we get to know very little outside of what she tells Alex, and this is detrimental to their on-screen relationship. The characters rarely sink to true emotional lows, and when they do, substantial narrative foundation is nowhere to be found, giving the audience little to root for. And when the high-stakes moments do occur—a culminating fight, a kiss in the rain, a breathless sprint to declare one’s love— they lack the charged passion that propels you out of your seat to scream, “Go! Tell him you love him!” The dynamic that results is slightly cute but mostly imbalanced, confusing, and, frankly, underwhelming.
Aside from its characters, the film’s plot leaves a number of flagrant unanswered questions. How have the two leads never met at the beginning of their story, despite coming from the same “small town?” The town, Linfield, is described as tiny and provincial—and yet is shown to be an inexplicably large suburb with two high schools. Also, why does Poppy only meet Alex’s long-term girlfriend seven years into their friendship?
imperfect process of adapting the novel to the small screen. Between the lack of first-person narration and plot details that didn’t make the final cut, the film forces audiences to fill in the gaps that should never have been left.
That being said, People We Meet on Vacation is undeniably stunning. It deftly escapes the flat, blown-out curse that afflicts its peers in the modern-day romcom genre. Instead of appearing dreary and overexposed, the film employs lighting and color grading that add to the story, in addition to simply illuminating the actor’s faces. The film is saturated with warm, incandescent light that breathes a feeling of intentionality into each shot. It’s almost beautiful enough to make you forget the plot’s shortcomings. Key word: almost.
A more disappointing post-production tool at the film’s disposal is its score. The movie certainly has a killer soundtrack— “Hang With Me” by Robyn is a song that deserves a spot in any movie. However, by the one-hour mark, when Taylor Swift’s “august” and boygenius’s “Cool About It” play back-to-back, it starts to feel tired. If we’ve learned anything from The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022-2025), it’s that a good needle drop can be a fast track to virality. But if filmmakers want your heart to swoon, their best bet is through an adrenalinefilled score. However, People We Meet on Vacation’s score, composed by Keegan DeWitt, sounds more similar to the songs in a reality TV show or whatever might pop up upon searching “copyright-free music” on YouTube. The weak score, intermittently placed throughout the movie, reminds viewers that they are, at the end of the day, watching a Netflix Original.
Like their lack of chemistry, many— though not all—of these issues are casualties of the
On the surface, People We Meet on Vacation gets a lot right. It’s a beautiful movie with equally beautiful romantic leads, and its use of classic romance tropes—friends-to-lovers, opposites attract, only one bed—are nothing if not entertaining. But on a deeper level, it struggles to fully and earnestly translate its source material to a new medium, letting core details get lost in the mix. The film emerges as pleasant and occasionally endearing, but it’s missing something And, regretfully, it is that something chemistry, depth, and thrill—that marks the di!erence between a good rom-com and a great one.
Georgetown lacrosse is striving for Moore
BY ANNA CORDOVA
DESIGN BY MAGGIE ZHANG
With seven consecutive BIG EAST Conference Championship victories, five pre-season All-American players, and a unanimous ranking as the No. 1 team in the Preseason Coaches’ Poll, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team is facing o! with high expectations this season.
The first and only time Georgetown men’s lacrosse broke past the quarterfinals was in 1999, when the team reached the Final Four, and ultimately lost to historic rival Syracuse 13-10. Since then, the Hoyas have yet to return to the semifinals or beyond, but junior Anderson Moore, reigning BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Year, believes that the Hoyas have what it takes to make it to the 2026 National Championships on Memorial Day weekend.
“Going to Memorial Day is something our program hasn’t done in a very long time, and so it’s certainly in the back of our minds, especially in the past two years, just falling short in the quarterfinals,” Moore said in an interview with the Voice.“It’s kind of been the story of our program.”
Last season, Georgetown finished with a 12-5 overall record and ranked No. 14 in the country, defeating Villanova 17-9 in the BIG EAST Championship to earn an NCAA bid. With nine goals during that game, now-sophomore attacker Jack Ransom set a BIG EAST record and was just two shy of the NCAA Division I record for most goals in a game.
The team beat Duke 16-12 in the first round of the NCAA tournament before falling 6-9 to Maryland, in the quarterfinals, ending a season marked by ups and downs.
“We were very much a roller coaster team,” Moore said. “It hurt us down a stretch where maybe we weren’t as disciplined as we needed to be, or we weren’t as good at executing what we were supposed to do.”
Moore believes discipline and humility will be key to the Hoyas’ future success. He said this lesson was reinforced when he was playing on the United States team at the 2025 Under-20 Lacrosse World Championships, where they placed second.
“You learn a lot from failure. I felt like that team took things for granted,” Moore said. “We had a talented bunch, but were we willing to hustle? Or be really disciplined at times? Maybe not as much, and it ended up leaving us one goal short.”
He wants the Hoyas to approach this season with that value of discipline.
The Georgetown lacrosse roster is now packed with new faces. High expectations have been set for graduate attackman Rory Connor and junior attackman Liam Connor; Georgetown added the pre-season All-American brothers from the transfer portal o!season. The two transferred from Colgate University, where they had spots as top point scorers who pushed the team to an upset victory in the 2025 Patriot League championship over No. 2 Boston University.
Hopes are also high for first-year midfielder Johnny Price, who was named all-ISL (International School League) four times from 2022-25 and All-New England in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Having new faces on the team has given Moore an opportunity to step up as a leader.
“I like to think in times where maybe it might not be going as well that I am a steady presence for our team,” he said. “The coaches expect it out of me, but also I expect it of myself.”
There are also notable returners to the team this season, despite the Hoyas’ top scorers, Aidan Carroll and Fulton Bayman, graduating. Standouts include Ransom, the sophomore attacker who had 36 points last season—the highest
among Georgetown’s returning players— and pre-season All-American Ross Prince. Prince, a sophomore face-o! specialist, played in 13 games last season as a freshman and won 143-of-227 (.629) faceo!s with 58 ground balls.
Georgetown also has an impressive lineup of senior players, including teamselected captains senior midfielder Lucas Dudemaine, graduate short-stick defensive midfielder Joe Vranizan, and senior midfielder Jordan Wray.
“I’m very excited that our team has elected Joe, Jordan, and Lucas as our 2026 captains,” Coach Kevin Warne told Georgetown Athletics. “Each of them has grown into this role since they stepped on campus, and they all understand how their leadership aligns with our program’s standards to help us navigate through the 2026 season.”
This season’s schedule is familiar: the Hoyas will face six teams they played last year, including Johns Hopkins University in the season opener, a team that nobody on this year’s roster has beaten. One notable addition to the schedule is Syracuse, who the Hoyas have not played since they beat the Orange 18-8 in 2021.
“[Syracuse] this year is one that we’re really excited for. I mean, they’re a very good program, very talented,” Moore said.
This season, the Hoyas have a game plan to beat those two key opponents and the rest of their matchups. Coach Warne will look to new faces and standout returners to build a wellrounded, disciplined team capable of dominating the field.
“We just want to outwork teams,” Moore said. “The ability to make teams play at our tempo and dictate a lot is when we find the most success. And I think we’re completely capable of doing that with any team we play.”
The Georgetown men’s lacrosse team will start its season at home on Cooper Field on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 1 p.m. Attend the game, and perhaps you will see Moore score his first goal—a rare feat for a goalkeeper.
“I might get a goal or two this year. It’s always in the back of my mind,” he said. “I’m still hunting.”
How to become a Seattle sports fan
BY PHOEBE NASH
DESIGN BY SOPHIE ST AMAND; LAYOUT BY MAGGIE ZHANG
As we approach Super Bowl LX, Hoyas are divided about who to support this Sunday. Whether you’re a committed Patriots hater, just happy the Chiefs aren’t back again, or mostly watching for Bad Bunny’s halftime show, welcome to my guide to rooting for the Seattle Seahawks.
Find a fellow fan
As one of the least qualified Seattleites to write this article, I’ll be the first to tell you it’s important to have an athletic advisor. I was lucky to grow up down the hall from two of Seattle sports’ biggest fans: my older brothers. Their commitment proved the importance of finding a true Seahawks fan to cheer alongside. Though Pacific Northwesterners are rare on this campus, look for anyone wearing a pu!er instead of a trench coat during snowmageddon, or who just generally seems waterproofed.
Realize it’s heaven-sent
Given my limited football knowledge, I’ll o!er you the mystical coincidence I’ve been toting around: the Seahawks are blessed by the Vatican. Crazy as it may sound, it’s statistically supported. With the election of the last three popes—Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, Pope Francis in 2013, and now Pope Leo XIV—the Seahawks have reached the Super Bowl. Unfortunately for Bears fans (or should I say, the Bad News Bears), Seattle has been blessed for over two decades, which seems to supersede Pope Leo XIV’s Chicago roots. I just wish this could somehow count towards my Theology requirement.
Debunk the “Seattle Freeze”
Whether or not you believe in the Seattle Freeze—the idea that Seattle natives and long-time residents turn a cold shoulder to eager-eyed transplants—the trend does not hold true for fanhood: we’ll take all the fans we can get. What’s more, Seattle sports teams often cheer each other on, like the Kraken wearing Seahawks merch ahead of the NFC Championship, or the Seahawks performing the Mariners’ signature celebration as an emblem of support for the Mariners’ World Series run this year.
Snack on a Seattle dog
If you’re hunting for a Super Bowl snack, look no further than the city’s unique take on a hot dog. While cream cheese, grilled onions, and jalapeños may seem like an
odd combination, and I’m not sure any Chicago native can bless this one, they’re a Seattle staple. The best dogs I’ve had are all within a block of the Seahawks’ Lumen Field, but, spare a flight to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, your best bet is a trek to Trader Joe’s for a homemade recreation. Or, hope that hot dog day at Leo’s is this Sunday and awkwardly ask if there’s leftover cream cheese from breakfast.
Grab your green & blue
With this quick turnaround, it will be a bit challenging to source authentic Seahawks gear. Luckily, both Hoyas and Hawks alike wear blue, so all you’ll need to source is some neon green. In a pinch, you could always scavenge for a green apple, steal a swivel chair from the HFSC, or lean into the outdoorsiness of it all and get some grass from the lawn. Whether you’re cheering from Georgetown Program Board’s watch party or the comfort of your dorm, just avoid wearing the Patriots’ signature red or going to the Patriots-supporting MedStar Dunkin’.
Discover Washington’s WAGs
If you’re still attached to the Patriots because of Ann Michael Maye—wife of Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and, more importantly, TikTok-viral influencer known for her 25 days of Bakemas—the Seahawks have plenty of WAGs (wives and girlfriends) of their own. From tech executive Katie Hoofnagle and Division I basketball player Raven Johnson to the iconically stylish Naomi Oluwatimi and local realtor Reese Therrell, there are plenty of icons to look out for on the sidelines.
Learn the lore
Now that you’re ready to join the 12s, it’s probably time to figure out what exactly a “12” is. According to the official Seahawks website, the fans aren’t merely spectators: they’re part of the team—the 12th man on the field. Their noise, energy, and distractions give the Seahawks a 12-on-11 advantage. This tradition runs deep. In 1984, the Seahawks became the first professional sports team to retire a jersey for their fans, which is hoisted everywhere: above Lumen Field, in local bars, on top of the Space Needle, and even westbound on I-90.
And the logo’s history
Ahead of the Seahawks’ last Super Bowl appearance in 2015, Seattle’s Burke
Museum uncovered the logo’s connection to a transformation mask created by the Kwakwaka'wakw people of the Pacific Northwest coast. Now on loan to the museum, it serves as a powerful reminder that Seahawks history is larger than just football.
Get loud(er)
The Seahawks’ home stadium is one of the most challenging atmospheres to play in, and it’s no accident. The stadium was designed to maximize crowd noise through a concentrated footprint, curved canopies that function as sound reflectors, and aluminum seats and concrete walls that amplify sound. The sound often becomes seismic: see the iconic 2011 “Beastquake” or 2013 Guinness World Record-breaking roar. Signs calling to get even “louder” can be found all around the stadium. Even during the recent NFC Finals against the Rams, a touchdown celebration outshook a nearby earthquake.
Stay for the long run
Congratulations, you have officially joined one of the best sports fandoms, at least for the weekend. Win or lose, hopefully you’ll stay for a while, and maybe even one day call the Evergreen State home. After all, being a Seattle sports fan means you’re in for the long run, mastering the patience to handle a two-decades-long playo!s drought, a stolen basketball team, and even this year’s epic—yet failed—Mariners World Series run. But you got here at a good time: the Seahawks are poised to avenge Seattle sports fans (now including you!) come Sunday.
Looking the part: The cost of fashion conformity at Georgetown
BY SEHR KHOSLA
At Georgetown, fashion rarely announces itself. It covertly arrives in beige knit sweaters and navy trench coats, in quarter-zips and discreet designer totes. It’s a careful and cohesive look repeated across lecture halls and libraries, familiar enough to fade into the background but distinctive enough to define the space.
Georgetown fashion is often perceived as preppy and polished, quietly reflecting access and expectation. While some students at Georgetown see the university’s fashion culture as motivating, others question who it serves, who it excludes, and how its reliance on consumption impacts both campus
“At Georgetown, I do feel a little more self-conscious if I dress casually. But at the same time, you could argue it’s a good thing, because sometimes it encourages me to dress nicer for class, and I will admit when I dress nicer, I feel better,” Ridel said.
Coming from a high school where pajamas and sweatpants were typical class attire, Ridel said she experienced a shift when coming to Georgetown. She quickly felt that she had to buy more jeans and nice blouses after seeing campus fashion. Pressure to dress a specific way or buy brand-new clothes to fit in can contribute to the lack of affordability students say dominates Georgetown’s fashion culture. However, Ridel said she believes that in order for this culture to change, it would take “a shift in the Georgetown acceptance demographics and statistics.”
The New York Times found in 2017 that 61% of Georgetown’s student body comes from a family in the top 10% of median income in the U.S., a demographic that helps sustain a campus where costly consumption is both visible and normalized. Still, students experience and interpret this fashion culture in different ways. For Nicole Ridel (MSB ’28), feeling the need to “dress up” actually helps her.
Coming to Georgetown, firstgeneration and low-income student Hudaa Chaudhry (CAS ’29) knew that there was an emphasis on success and career among the student body, but not to such a physically conspicuous extent.
“I feel like a lot of people here measure success by materialistic or visible status. So whenever I see someone who’s wearing some designer brand or high-end cost shoes, I always think, ‘Wow, they must really have it down,’” Chaudhry said. She explained that these visible markers of wealth can create an implicit hierarchy on campus, leaving some students feeling out of place in academic and social spaces.
“Walking into places like the MSB or SFS, I felt really ashamed of how I was presenting myself because I just felt like I wasn’t fitting the stereotype of a Georgetown student,” Chaudhry said. “Buying clothes is a big restraint for me, and I feel like being at Georgetown, you’re kind of pressured to buy certain brands, because you see everyone else displaying them.”
Some student organizations have acknowledged the inaccessibility of fashion as a creative opportunity and seek to address this issue in various ways. At the Georgetown Retail and Luxury Association (GRLA), a student organization educating Hoyas on the retail and luxury industries,
combating barriers to fashion is a priority, according to Sophia Leissner (CAS ’29), the club’s president.
“Whether it’s at Georgetown or anywhere, the luxury space can at times feel like there’s a barrier to entry and as if it’s a space that might not be for all. And so what GRLA tries to do is make it more accessible,” Leissner said.
The organization is dedicated to shedding light on what the industry looks like. They also bring opportunities to the Hilltop to show accessible avenues for students to enter the retail and luxury fields as a profession.
She highlighted that the unapproachability of the retail and luxury industry is an assumption that she sees as an untrue representation of the industry’s true goals.
“At the end of the day, for us, it’s not just about a price tag. It’s so much about the craftsmanship and the storytelling that’s involved in it, and about the culture and the artistic practices,” Leissner said.
The greater wealth concentration at Georgetown is also a contributing factor to overconsumption, an issue that already plagues many university campuses. With the ever-looming presence of social media accelerating trend cycles and normalizing constant consumption, falling victim to a new microtrend and the subsequent environmental harm is a mere scroll away.
Chaudhry said that fashion becomes a point of contention when it comes to fast fashion, referring to the rapid production of inexpensive and trendy clothing, notably seen with companies like SHEIN and H&M. Students like Chaudhry want to be eco-friendly with their clothing choices, but sometimes struggle with the financial burden of sustainability.
“A lot of people judge low-income students who are wearing fast fashion, but they don’t know that that's really all we can afford. I try to steer away from fast fashion, but it’s always something I can come back to because it is so cheap,” Chaudhry said.
Sara Lignell (CAS ’26), chief executive officer of Georgetown’s 501(c)(3) sustainable clothing non-profit REUSE, noted an added pressure since arriving at Georgetown to update her wardrobe to a business aesthetic.
GRAPHICS BY MASHA MILLER; LAYOUT BY LUCY MONTALTI
With apps like Amazon so accessible and stores like H&M at our doorstep, many students turn to fast fashion for its affordability. Lignell confirms that this is the case from her experience taking inventory at REUSE, often finding these pieces discarded among the high-quality designer pieces donated by Georgetown students.
“I think fast fashion is very common, especially more towards trendy items. There’s going-out tops, Halloween costumes, St. Paddy’s tops we see a lot— things that people need for some type of themed event,” Lignell said. “When it’s something that you think you’re just gonna wear once, then people tend to want fast fashion.”
Additionally, many Georgetown students feel more compelled to shop new because of the lack of thrifting options in the neighborhood. Within a 30-minute walk of Georgetown’s main campus, there are only three thrift or vintage shops.
“It’s really tough around the Georgetown area because you either have very expensive or more vintage-y shops,” Lignell said in reference to finding good thrift stores. “You have the market, which is becoming increasingly more expensive and less easy to find.”
Social pressure, age, and social media can culminate in a self-reinforcing cycle that exacerbates overconsumption, said Emma Lindbergh (CAS ’26), head of REUSE’s free mending and upcycling program ReStitch.
“There definitely is a pressure to be fashionable and with the times, especially when you are young and with just constantly having social media, being inundated with different trends and all of that. So, a lot of consumerism is pushed onto us,” Lindbergh said.
While environmental awareness about overconsumption is growing, according to Lindbergh, it does not dissolve the cultural pressures that shape how students dress, particularly in a campus environment where professionalism and polish remain the norm.
Co-founder of Added to the File (ATTF), Georgetown’s student-run fashion and photography magazine, Lindsay Khalluf (CAS ’26), felt that there were limited opportunities for creativity on campus.
Khalluf said that Georgetown’s preprofessional focus and competitive club applications can prioritize resumestacking over creative expression or leisurely activities.
“I think it tends to discredit your creative pursuits or hobbies or more creative clubs because those are seen as not ‘serious,’” Khalluf said. “A lot of people don't want to go into careers in
those fields or don’t think that those fields can translate into a career.”
Khalluf believes the lack of thrift culture reinforces a narrow, uniform approach to consumption. Instead of refashioning old clothing, students just buy new.
“When you have to edit clothing or alter them or find whatever, and you can’t plan what you find, it’s a lot more time and creativity that you put into your appearance,” Khalluf said.
Given that many Georgetown students emphasize the professionalism of the school’s fashion culture, clothes can contribute to restrictive perceptions of success. Chaudhry certainly believes that is the case.
“I think our definition of professional is kind of just cookie-cutter, but I think we need to branch out and realise there are so many professions out there, and not just a suit and tie will get you the career that you want,” Chaudhry said.
For ATTF wardrobe team member Abdur Rahman (CAS ’28), this pressure to dress a certain way manifests less overtly, but just as persistently.
“I think a lot of people see the way that other people dress and try to conform to that. It’s not a lot of external pressure, but that internal pressure is still really valid, because you see the people around you, you want to be like them, you want to be like your environment,” Rahman said.
Rahman believes that there has actually been an increase in students embracing alternative fashion at Georgetown, suggesting that this internal pressure is beginning to loosen and Georgetown students are becoming “more open to other forms of dressing.”
Aaron Pan (MSB ’29) said that the university’s “WASP-y” demographic is very different from what he is used to back home in northern New Jersey, referring to Georgetown as a “major market demographic change.” Pan suggested that this shift was not only regional, but racialized, permeating campus fashion and shaping which clothing is seen as normative.
“Especially here, we see the prototypical New England and Nantucket sort of preppy vibe. I’ve never seen more quarter-zips in my life, I’ve never seen more Vineyard Vines in my life,” Pan said. “It’s a cultural expression that these kids have that you just wouldn’t find back home.”
Pan elaborated on this idea, suggesting that this way of dressing creates a “cultural economic barrier,” which may discourage students from expressing themselves through their outfits.
“When you wear these clothes, you’re indicating a belonging to a social group. And when you clearly don't belong, you have no motivation to do so, and you’re not able to do so. There’s no access to that sort of way,” Pan said.
Rahman refers to Georgetown fashion as “entwined,” highlighting that no single style operates in isolation on campus. Instead, different fashion styles blend to create a unique university identity.
“Everyone kind of adjusts to the other people and starts dressing like the people around them, but they also copy their styles, and so everyone kind of comes together,” Rahman said.
Ultimately, Khalluf stressed that there is little inherent issue with how students choose to dress if they feel comfortable in what they wear. However, campus fashion culture becomes an issue when students feel that their creative expression through fashion is being limited by an implicit expectation to conform as the cost of belonging.
“I think people should be allowed to wear whatever they’re confident in, even if that is professional attire,” Khalluf said. “But I do think sometimes it gets to the point where people might not feel comfortable wearing other things because of what the norm is here, and people might feel more afraid to wear clothes that are more out there.”
