Â鶹´«Ã½

By Megan Bradshaw on March 7, 2017

Alina Pargamanik, ’19, business administration (marketing) major / mass communications minor

Tell me about where you’re from.

I grew up in Reisterstown, Maryland, and I commute from there. My favorite thing about it was all the diversity. It is an area where there are people of every race, religion and ethnicity. The high school I went to [Franklin High School]…you would find literally everyone there. I think growing up there really shaped me.

Tell me about your family.

I live with my mom and dad and my little sister. She’s eight years old. She acts like she’s a big teenager. We’re definitely very close. Every Saturday we have brunch at my grandmother’s house. We’re very tight. My mom’s an accountant. She works at GBMC. My dad’s a dental technician.

What made you choose Towson University?

First of all, it’s close to home. I thought for the cost, it was very nice. I just really like that it’s a big campus with a small campus feel, which they say all the time, but it’s true. It’s really nice.

What do you do in your free time?

Homework takes a load of time! I also have a job. I work as a tutor at kumon. I work with the little kids—from three to six or seven years old. I teach them basic math, reading, and I do paperwork and administrative tasks. Having the opportunity to talk to the little kids…it’s different to how you talk to adults. You have to be creative because they are still doing work.

What is your favorite class or professor?

I really, really like my legal and environmental business class with [Fred] Lauer. Just talking about the different cases and trying to figure out how to make it work. I actually want to go to law school after my undergrad, so it’s really a big push into that. With my undergrad [background], I kind of want to steer into doing some campaign work.

What is your favorite thing about TU?

The small community feel of it…I’m in the Honors College, and that within itself is an even smaller community where I can relate to a bunch of people with the Honors classes that we take. You see some familiar faces. Everyone is just really nice, really friendly. I see some similarities between my high school and Towson University with the diversity and people being from all around.

What made you want to apply to the Honors College?

I was always in the AP / GT track in high school, and there was that community within those classes. I thought at Towson I should be involved in things like that. I got accepted, and I’m actually a recruiter for them now.

What made you pick your major?

I definitely want to go into business. I was kind of flipping around with the concentrations, but I think with marketing it has a creative approach to it. I can really express my ideas with it. That creativity is just fun. I’m actually considering changing my mass communications minor to a major and just doing a double major. I think that marketing and mass communications fit hand-in-hand, especially if I choose the advertising track.

What made you decide to enter your paper into the literacy award contest?

[In my freshman seminar] we read an excerpt from The Big Thirst. It talked about how water issues affect India and the United States and how we deal with it differently. That’s where I got my topic—if the local government in Delhi takes enough initiative to deal with their water issues. I found out about the award when I got the email that I won! I had no idea [my professor] had submitted my paper. It was definitely exciting. It was definitely a good surprise.

Related - Honors spotlight with Alina Pargamanik

Is there anything this semester that you’re looking forward to?

For sure! I think last semester was great. I’m hoping this semester is even better. There are so many events that I’ve heard about, like TigerFest, that I’m really looking forward to. And just exploring more options about what I could be doing with extracurriculars.