Love At First Sight

In Hannah’s junior year of high school, she looked towards college and while she had heard of CatholicU, it really wasn’t on her radar. However, she had attended the March for Life and knew she loved D.C. In the Spring of that year, however, a simple encounter changed everything. 

Hannah went on a school trip to Italy with the Modern Languages department of her high school. They were walking the streets of Rome and passed The Catholic University of America’s Rome Center. She saw a staff member outside the gates and asked, “Can I go to school here?” As they explained the center’s partnership with the university, the academic path started to become clear for Hannah. Hannah researched the university and discovered that it excelled in the programs she wanted to study. A campus tour only further raised her estimations of the university. By application season, The Catholic University of America was firmly in the middle of her list. When financial aid returned and her honors overnight were a roaring success, Hannah was overjoyed to call CatholicU “the one”. From her very first advising meeting, a semester abroad has been Hannah’s biggest priority on her college bucket list. While the COVID pandemic pushed these plans back a year, Hannah will finally be able to fulfill her dream come true, a semester abroad at the Rome Center. 

While she is a little hesitant to leave her “favorite place on Earth” for a whole semester, she remarks, “It’s literally Rome, what more could you ask for?” Our university and the U.S. will certainly miss her as well as she is very involved in Cardinal Service Corps Leadership, Redefined, Renew, Phi Eta Sigma, and is even the social media coordinator for her home diocese. Her favorite memory at the university was this year at the first mass back in person at St.Vincent’s Chapel. She remembers vividly the feelings of gratitude and normalcy that washed over her upon seeing “Vinny’s” packed once again.

Hannah will use her semester abroad to take courses in Theology, Philosophy, Italian, Art, and Chemistry. She will also attempt to finish her goal of visiting twenty countries before she turns twenty! Through her attendance at World Youth Day, the Camino in Santiago, as well as various other trips, she is already 12 countries into this goal.That means weekends in Greece, Venice, Austria, Monte Carlo, and so many more are on her list!