Chances are that you’ve seen Nicole Boschetti on campus. She’s the bubbly blonde who says hello to anyone and everyone and cannot be missed. Check out what she does on campus and how she’s making a difference.
HC: Why did you choose Marist?
I chose Marist because it was a very “at home” feeling here. Students are so friendly, professors are so kind — everybody is just there for you all the time. Aside from it being in a beautiful location, it really just had everything that I’d ever wanted. I’m really all about leadership; I think it’s really important not only to have a high GPA and to work really hard on grades, but it’s really important that you participate in lots of clubs and that you’re president of a club or vice president or lots of different things. And I feel like Marist has given me tons of those opportunities during my time here.
HC: You went to Hawaii last summer as a part of the Teacher Education program. What was that like?
The Hawaii program was great. We were in a classroom almost every single day while we were there. We helped out with a field day once, which was really cool because we got to see kids out of the classroom. And then we went into classrooms, and the kids were actually teaching us Hawaiian legends. It was really a cultural change from what I was used to. It was overwhelming just to see how different kids could be when living in various parts of the world. We saw a lot of the inner-city kids of Hawaii, which you normally wouldn’t assume to be what they’re living in. I think that was hard to see so many kids living in poverty, but I felt really great that we got to help them during our time there, and I hope to do more of that in the future.
HC: I think everybody on this campus knows you. What’s the best part of being such a visible, involved member of the Marist community?
You could be having the worst day ever, and you could wake up like, “Oh my God, today I’m just not on it, and I need five more hours of sleep,” and then you’ll walk out your door and someone will be like, “Hey! What’s up? How’s it going? We have a meeting tomorrow. Can you attend Wednesday’s meeting?” It’s just everybody comes to you, and there’s always someone to run into. My friends used to yell at me, like, “Oh my God, I can’t go anywhere with her because she’s going to say hi to 5 million people on the way to the next academic building.” But it makes me feel great knowing that I’m a positive influence and that so many people are loving and caring enough to make such a positive impact on my day.
HC: You’re currently in the highly competitive process of applying for Teach for America. Why?
I am from a very privileged area [Bergen County]. It’s a lot of high class. I never had a learning disability; I never had to worry about going to a broken home or taking care of a sibling because my parents were working five jobs. My parents do work full-time, but we always had someone there to take care of us or make dinner for us. Our lunches were always prepared every single day. I student teach in Poughkeepsie, and I see students who get breakfast, lunch and sometimes even dinner from the town, and they’re still not eating many nutritious things. It’s so hard to see them struggling so much. I feel like if I stay in Bergen County or if I stay in this area with my GPA and all my leadership experience, I could probably get a pretty decent job somewhere, but I feel like I don’t want to help the students who are privileged. I want to be with the students who need that one-on-one attention and who want the help. And it’ll give me the chance to explore and see other parts of the world. I’d live anywhere.
HC: What is your post-graduation dream life?
My post-graduation dream life would be ideally to live in Hawaii. This is funny because in fifth grade I told myself, “You’re going to be writing — I wanted to be a writer my whole life – you’re going to be writing in Hawaii.” And exactly 10 years later, I went to Hawaii – and no, I was not writing there – but now I’m hoping to actually move there. I’d like to teach there in the inner-city schools that I saw. When I went to their field day, people had donated these giant blow-up slides and bouncy machines and water guns, and we all brought something with us too, like water balloons; we were bringing everything we could. I want to help students in areas like that and be in the sun and get away from this cold. Hopefully, I’ll be teaching, and I’ll get my master’s and doctorate and become a principal one day or a superintendent. I want to shoot high.
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Photo credit: Nicole Boschetti