About Me

Hi!  I’m Gianna Rotondo, and I am a second year Theoretical Mathematics and Linguistics major! This is my second year in the International Affairs Scholars program and I am on the International Community track. One of the biggest pieces of my identity is my hometown. I am from Warwick, New York, a small, rural town about 1.5 hours from New York City. I was born in New Jersey, but I moved to New York when I was three years old and have lived there ever since. I absolutely love my hometown.  There is a really amazing sense of community because it is a relatively small town. There is also some of the most beautiful scenery, and I love driving around Warwick and looking at its beauty.  I also adore New York City, and I love taking the train with my friends or family and walking around to see street art or going to a park or museum.  Being from New York has truly shaped my personality, and it has also created my love for street art and big cities.

Another huge part of my identity is my family and family heritage.  I am 75% Italian, and I have a huge family. I have two brothers and a sister, and I also have a ton of cousins, aunts, uncles, first cousins, first cousins once removed, etc.  My family always gets together for birthdays and holidays (our biggest family gathering always occurs on Christmas Eve) and it is always a time filled with great food, a lot of laughter, and immense love.

One of my most shaping experiences was in August 2012 when I had the opportunity to travel with World Vision, a non-profit organization with a mission to end world hunger, to Zambia.  I fundraised for World Vision’s world hunger awareness and fundraising event, the 30 Hour Famine, and because of my work with that event, I applied and was selected to go on World Vision’s Study Tour to Zambia.  For ten days, I went with seven other teenagers to see what World Vision was doing to improve the lives of citizens in villages of Zambia.  We traveled to a new village every day and saw their water sources, schools, homes, and learned about their everyday lives. Through this experience, I learned about my love for traveling as well as my desire to connect with and help people.

Another important experience for me was a class I took my senior year in high school called Critical Thinking in the Humanities.  We examined art, beauty, spoken word and other humanities in different cultures, and looked at how we could apply those concepts to our lives.  My teacher for this class really showed me how much we pass during our everyday lives that could teach us and shape us if we took the chance to stop and think. My teacher once asked us, “if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, how would you live your life today?” He taught us that tomorrow is not guaranteed, so we need to really go after the life we want, but he taught us this using different art forms and critical thinking activities. This class turned me into the thinker, learner, and person I am today and still influences a lot of my thoughts and actions.

These two experiences are two of the main reasons why I decided to join IA. As an actuarial science major, there is not much of a focus on international affairs or the humanities, which I learned are two of my main interests. While I still have a huge love for math, which I live out through my major, it was really important to me to have international affairs be part of my academic life as well. IA was and is a really unique and important way for me to look at life around the world and critically think about various happenings in society while still pursuing my dream job of being an actuary. IA has continued to shape how I think and open my mind to new cultures. For example, last year I traveled with IA to India for the May study abroad program. I probably never would have chosen to travel to India on my own, but I was able to go with the scholars program and I ended up learning more about myself than I ever could have imagined. I was able to apply some of the concepts from the Critical Thinking class in high school, as well as gain more information about different cultures and religion, and really examine how my identity fit into that.

Overall, being part of the International Affairs Scholars program has been an integral part of my experience in higher education, and has helped shaped my identity in unexpected ways. I suspect that I will continue to learn and grow even more through my journey in IA and at Ohio State in general.

Year in Review

This year was in every way a year of growth and maturation for me. When I started the year, I was unhappy in my major and insecure in my job as an RA. Now, I have switched my major and grown more confident in my RA role while simultaneously realizing that the job is not for me. I have learned so much about myself this year, and this introspection has led to a lot of transformational decision making and growing more into who I am and what I want out of my college career and future personal and professional life.

In the beginning of this year, my academic expectations were to have passed my first actuary exam and officially get into the actuarial science major. Professionally, I expected to grow in my role as an RA and prepare to return to the job next year. Neither of these expectations were met, but instead they were altered and I learned that they were not fitting expectations for me.

First, I realized how unhappy and uninterested I was in my major. It was difficult for me to come to terms with this, but once I did, I allowed myself to find the majors that excited me. Through this self-reflection, I finally decided to double major in Theoretical Mathematics and Linguistics. As a result, I am much more excited about my academic future and more motivated in my classes.

I also realized that I prefer task-oriented work with tangible results. Because of this, I found the RA role to be quite draining and unfulfilling. That is not to say I did not gain any skills, learn anything, or have no enjoyable parts of the job- because I most certainly did. It is to say that the job does not fit well with my strengths. After learning this, I have decided to step down from my position as a Resident Advisor and instead find a campus job more similar to my previous job as an Office Assistant.

Though this year did not go as expected, it allowed for a lot of change and self-realization. By learning from these set-backs and unexpected changes, I have grown and become much more excited about my future.

G.O.A.L.S.

Global Awareness:

Last May, I studied abroad in India for two weeks with IA and learned a lot about the culture in northern India specifically. This summer, I will be studying abroad in Madrid and living with a host family, so I will have the opportunity to learn about and participate in the culture and everyday life in Madrid.

Original Inquiry:

I hope to participate in undergraduate research at Ohio State in the math department, particularly research that involves number theory. I also would like to perform original research and pursue my Ph.D. in either Mathematics or Linguistics after I finish my undergraduate career.

Academic Enrichment:

Last Spring I took a course called Everyday Life in South Asia. We learned about the history of South Asia and the culture and customs of various countries in the region. Then, in May we traveled to India and were able to actually see a lot of what we learned about in the classroom. We went to a variety of places of worship and talked to many locals and gained real world experience to enhance what we learned in the classroom.

Leadership Development:

I have developed my leadership by being an RA, where I am a mentor and role model to residents on my floor and in my residence hall. This has given me experience in conflict resolution, organizing and facilitating events, and working with my peers.

Service Engagement:

Through my service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, I engage in at least fifteen hours of community service every semester. One of my favorite service events is helping at a food pantry in Grandview, Heart to Heart. There, we help unload trucks of food and stock the shelves so that families can get groceries and toiletries for free.

Career

 

WORK EXPERIENCE

Resident Advisor

August 2015-May 2016

  • Planned programs and events pertinent to residents’ needs and wants
  • Enforced university policies within the residence hall
  • Promoted learning, wellness, diversity and inclusion, and community for all residents
  • Helped residents resolve conflicts with their roommates and other members of the hall
  • Performed administrative tasks such as incident reports and documentation of programs

Office Assistant

August 2014-May 2015

  • Managed front desk and lobby area of residence hall
  • Logged and issued packages for residents
  • Encoded loaner keys for residents who lost their room keys
  • Maintained security of building, ensuring that those who entered the residence hall lived there
  • Provided assistance and resources for many different issues and questions that residents had

ACTIVITIES

Alpha Phi Omega

August 2015-Present

  • Coed service fraternity committed to building leadership, friendship, and doing community service
  • Completed 40 hours of community service in first two semesters joined
  • Attended various leadership workshops on themes such as project planning and risk management

RLEAD

August 2014

  • Participated in small group activities to foster community building with peers at the university
  • Attended sessions with university employees to learn about leadership and involvement opportunities
  • Learned new leadership skills in the context of leading peers