SPOTLIGHT ON A STUDENT
   Olga Sologub (MSB'12, GSP'83), Albuquerque, NM

Olga Sologub bubbles into a room.  There’s no other way to put it.  When I met her at GSP’s Welcome Party for our students this fall, she embraced me with a hug so warm and genuine, I felt like I was reuniting with a long lost relative.  And, as a Hoya, I wonder if I wasn’t.

Today, I meet her at Saxby’s Coffee Shop (the home of the old Sugar’s) for hot chocolate at a table in the back.  She greets me with this same infectious enthusiasm, telling me I look great.  In other words, you’d like her instantly too.

On the surface, Olga seems like a normal Georgetown student.  She lives in Harbin Hall, competes in Ballroom Dancing, works in Financial Aid and majors in Accounting.  This unassuming appearance makes her story all the more stunning.

Olga emigrated from Kazakhstan to the U.S. with her mother when she was nine, speaking no English.  Her father had moved here a year before that to get his footing in Albuquerque for his young family.  In New Mexico, her parents worked tirelessly (often two jobs a piece) to provide opportunities for her, and Olga took advantage of every one.

She served as President of her school’s National Honors Society, was a Student Senator, and earned the Selfless Senior Award in a class of 500.  She speaks Russian and Spanish fluently, and is planning to learn German or Italian.

Her Georgetown story is equally compelling.  While in high school, Olga visited D.C. and passed through the Georgetown neighborhood.  Stunned by the sight of Healy, she recalls, “I stood in front of the gates, and made my decision right there.”  She was so convinced that she did not even walk through the gates until she arrived here as a freshman.

Years earlier, ironically, when his daughter was just a child, Olga’s father also took a trip to D.C.  And he too stood in front of the Healy Gates, overwhelmed with emotion.  As he told Olga only after she started freshman year here, “I wanted to go [to Georgetown].  But more importantly, I wanted you to go here.”  I ask why he didn’t attempt it, and she shrugs her shoulders, “It was just too difficult then.”  While that sentence hangs in the air, I wonder if her father knows how clearly proud Olga is that he gave of himself to make this dream one day possible for her.

When she was admitted to Georgetown, Olga cried tears of happiness.  But the news was bittersweet because financial aid would be a determining factor.  She was offered a completely full-ride at the University of New Mexico, hard to turn down even though her heart was already at Georgetown.  But fate delivered again, and through the intercession of Dean of Student Financial Services, Patricia McWade, and Joan Monaghan Hart G'54, GSP was able to make Georgetown a reality.

Olga says simply, “Had I not gotten the GSP Scholarship, I would not be here.  No question”

We get up from our table to head back to campus, and Olga asks if she can throw my cup away for me.  This reminds of how she stuck around after our Welcome Party in September to help with clean-up.  This is who she is when no one is looking.

We chat happily, walking on uneven brick sidewalks back to those famous front gates where she grabs my hand impulsively and looks up at Healy: “See!”  And I get to remember what that feeling was like for me ten years ago.  She continues, as we head across Copley Lawn, “I really feel like I’ve found my haven.  I feel so right here.  It’s a privilege.”

SCHOLARS GIVE BACK!  Students Overwhelm Georgetown's 25 Days of Service

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Six of the seven Board Members of "25 Days" are GSP Scholars.  Through this program, Georgetown student organizations perform 25 consecutive days of community service in addition to the volunteerism they already engage in.  For more information, please visit: www.25days.blogspot.com.

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