Marissa D'Antonio - Boston College

This past semester was incredibly educational, difficult, and eye opening. I took a full course load, participated in clubs, and fell in love with weight lifting all during a global pandemic. This semester I took three business courses, an Italian course, and a course on Swift and iOS app development. This app development class was packed full of coding, interface design, and computer science principles, leading me to learn how to develop a full-stack app in one semester. Though this course was incredibly rigorous and challenging, it showed me that if I work hard at something and put the time in, I can learn anything. I plan on continuing to work on developing apps, and am thinking about seeking an internship in app development and design. As with everything else, none of my clubs were in person this semester. I am on the E-Board for Consultants for Social Impact, and was in charge of transitioning the club to be able to function remotely. We were incredibly successful in working with six non-profit organizations, doing consulting work, planning fundraising, and website development. This semester I continued my community service with 4Boston, tutoring for the Allston Brighton Community Development Center. Though this did not mean going into the city on the T like in semesters past, I was able to continue to watch my students learn and grow through an incredibly difficult time. I have known many of these kids for over two years now, but this semester we were all able to connect on a deeper level. Though online learning was tough for me, it was nothing compared to what low income students, with non-English speaking parents were going through. These kids truly taught me that you can achieve anything with resilience and a little bit of extra work. I plan to continue my work with them for the rest of my time at Boston College. Thank you so much MVYouth for having my back during this very difficult time. You have truly made it possible for me to continue my education through thick and thin.