Emma Gross '25
"My time at Bryn Mawr has been the most formative years of my life—I have learned not only about who I am but also about who I want to become and how I want to continue to build and foster community once I leave."
"My time at Bryn Mawr has been the most formative years of my life—I have learned not only about who I am but also about who I want to become and how I want to continue to build and foster community once I leave."
My name is Emma Gross, and I am a current Bryn Mawr senior International Studies Major with minors in Political Science and Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and North African studies. My time at Bryn Mawr has been the most formative years of my life—I have learned not only about who I am but also about who I want to become and how I want to continue to build and foster community once I leave.
As a junior and senior in high school amid the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was left with a lot of time to reflect on the way I wanted to exist in the world and where my passions lay. At that time in 2020, the political and social climate in the world around me made me feel overwhelmed because I knew I wanted to engage in something where I felt like I could make a positive difference. But I had no idea how to do that, how to build the confidence to take up space and advocate for others, or the importance of an intentional, supportive, and noncompetitive community like Bryn Mawr to build that confidence.
I wound up connecting with Bryn Mawr because even though I wasn’t sure exactly how it would happen, I knew Bryn Mawr would be the kind of space that would guide me and help me gain a greater perspective on where my life could go. Talking with an alumna, Liz Burke ‘23, I was struck by how she described Bryn Mawr students being non-competitive with one another in and out of the classroom. I was also struck by how even when Bryn Mawr students didn’t know how exactly they wanted to make a difference, they knew they would nevertheless leave their mark on the world and work to find a way to do so.
This kind of community resonated with me because it was a stark contrast from my high school experience. It also made me feel like Bryn Mawr was the space that I needed to be in to connect with a community of people who are encouraged to follow their passions and have the intention of leaving the world and their community better than they found it. Every time I had a question about what I wanted out of my college experience, my gut told me Bryn Mawr would have the answers, and ultimately it did.
Since being at Bryn Mawr, I have found that the most important moments have been seeing the ways I have been supported in my goals and how I’ve been driven to want to pay that kindness I received forward to others. My professors since day one on this campus have repeatedly gone out of their way to help me achieve my goals and make me feel confident. In my junior year I expressed to my professor, Dr. Aytuğ Şaşmaz, that I had a desire to study more about the Middle East as my passions in peace building and processes felt like they were pushing me to delve further into that region. He helped me, with just three semesters left in my time at Bryn Mawr, find a way to add a MECANA Studies Minor which has ultimately changed the trajectory of where I see myself in my future career endeavors. I also had the opportunity to work as a research assistant with Professor Şaşmaz and further expand my knowledge in political party systems around the world, which was a goal of mine I had expressed to him prior to joining the team. Similarly, Dr. Elizabeth Corredor’s classes on peace processes and gendered relations in the International Relations department have wholly changed the way I see the world. The one-on-one advice and encouragement I have received from her to follow my passions and pursue both further degrees and a career in peace building and conflict resolution have impacted my life beyond measure--and given me the hope and confidence to do what I didn’t think was possible. One day, I hope to also become a professor, and I will aim to pay forward the knowledge, compassion, and enthusiasm that Dr. Şaşmaz and Dr. Corredor have offered me.
Beyond my professors, my peers and friends have also created a space where I have felt incredibly loved, cared for, and inspired. In my a cappella group as a senior, I have been able to experience the heartwarming cyclical nature of how students are encouraged and lifted up by upperclassmen and then get to pass that on. Not only did I find my roses for WTF week in my a cappella group (Wills Kornberg and Cara Cobden ‘23), but I was also able to become a rose and grand rose to our “baby fowls” as we call our first-year night owls. I was inspired by my older peers to foster a musical space grounded in community support that focuses on being a positive creative outlet where our members feel free to be themselves and build leadership skills. It has been so meaningful to both form lasting friendships and find encouragement to take on leadership positions like being music director. I’ve able to encourage younger members to take up leadership space and watch as our friendships grow and evolve as they, too, find their space at Bryn Mawr. Whether, I have had moments where I need to lean in for support or moments where I have wanted to feel celebrated, the people that I have had the privilege of meeting in Night Owls have always been there for me and I am eternally grateful for the friendships I have made.
As I prepare to move on to my next chapter, I hope I can leave Bryn Mawr and the people I have met here with the knowledge that even when we leave this physical space, I will always be there to support and celebrate them, uplift their passions, and engage with their creative endeavors. Leaving Bryn Mawr does not mean the communities we build are fragmenting and dissipating, but rather that they will expand and grow via connections to new places and people with the goal of making the unique, once-in-a-lifetime community at Bryn Mawr a phenomenon that extends into our lives post-grad. Bryn Mawr has transformed both how I see myself and how I see my future, and I owe that to the people I have met here who have shown me the magic and power that comes with a community driven by passion and a desire to build a better world.
