Victoria Bryant
Victoria Bryant, an interdisciplinary studies major with a concentration on law and society, shares how she became a “student of the world” interested in culture, laws and languages.
Interview by Jordan Ferguson
Tell us about yourself.
I grew up in central New Jersey, a pretty urban area. My mom raised me as a single parent, and she did a very good job. When I was about 10, I moved here to Georgia, and I went through the school system. I did pretty well, and I ended up volunteering a lot in high school for the Spanish Honor Society.
In high school I took Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish, AP Psychology and AP Environmental Science and, at that point, my worldviews started to be shaped around the humanities. I started to become more concerned about things happening in the world, outside of my neighborhood, outside of my state and even outside of my country. I became fluent in Spanish, and I came here to Georgia State, took an intermediate Spanish course my first year, and became the public relations officer for the Spanish Club. Now, as a sophomore, I’m the president of the Spanish Club.
How did you choose Georgia State?
I’m fascinated by culture. We have people from everywhere doing different things. I hear languages that I’ve never heard spoken before. I’m really just immersing myself in the diversity and the freedom to express oneself without judgment.
As a student of the world, where do you see yourself going once you graduate?
I definitely see myself traveling and being employed overseas, but I’m not sure because I really want to kind of just focus on the community right now, whether it’s through service or volunteering.
Tell us about some of the classes you’ve taken, and how they’ve prepared you to achieve your goals.
During my first year, I took basic math and intermediate Spanish. For the Spanish class, I had tested into it, and it helped me be more fluent. As someone who is on the executive board of a Spanish club at a school, I think that’s very important. Last year, I also took Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice and that’s a class where you are able to sit and think about the implications of what happens when things get written into law. It gives you a broader perspective of what happens when laws go into place and who’s enforcing them. This year, I’m taking Judicial Process and Courts, where I’m reading court briefs and thinking about the implications, from a societal and political standpoint, of Supreme Court decisions. I love it because, as a scholar of the world, I can see how law and political decisions not only affect the country and community but also shape the direction the world is headed.
This year I’m also taking an art class, Art of the Global South, which includes Africa, Oceania, and South and Central America. My teacher, Jennifer Siegler, has access to a nice collection of ancient textiles and ceramics from 300 BCE from modern-day Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and countries like that. I spoke with her, and she said she’d be able to showcase that for the Spanish Club this year.
If you could describe your time so far at Georgia State in one word, what would that word be and why?
I would say hopeful, because being in this area, the city, you’re going to see the good and the bad of people. Not everybody here is a student, but you get to see the production, the creativity of the latest minds and the next generation of adults. You see their output, you see what’s on their minds, you see that people care about other people, and you see these activist organizations and creative people trying to express themselves through art. I think it definitely evokes hope.
