Meet Our Ambassadors
2012 – 2013 Honors Ambassadors
Honors Ambassadors are a diverse group of upper-class Honors students representing the various colleges on campus and the range of a Northeastern University education. These student leaders are active in Admissions related events, such as fall Open Houses, spring Welcome Days, and Honors Welcome Week for first-year students. They support the Honors Program by participating in panel discussions on their experiences in the Honors Program at the Open Houses and Welcome Days where they answer questions from prospective students and their families. They also meet with an Honors Advisor and prospective students and their families for a focused discussion about opportunities on campus.
Justin Alves
Major: Nursing, Marine Studies Minor
Fun Fact: I am a published author in the Library of Congress about the Wampanoag Native Americans.
Favorite Honors Class: Introduction to Psychology because it was taught by an amazing professor in a very unique way.
Career Aspirations: I want to be the first nurse to work exclusively with mermaids, just kidding! I want to work in one of Boston’s hospitals eventually as a nurse anesthetist.
MacKenzie Bartz
Major: Psychology
Fun Fact: I’m on the rowing team at NU.
Favorite Quote: “If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.”
Favorite Honors Class: Psychology and Law
Katherine Braggins
Major: International Affairs
Fun Fact: I can speak 5 languages….on a good day
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: I love interdisciplinary seminars. It gives honors students the opportunity to have great professors for classes that are not typically offered.
Favorite Honors Class: The Conflict in the North of Ireland, Seeking Peace in Times of Terror, The Edible Environment
Sean Burns
Major: Chemical Engineering
Fun Fact: I’m colorblind.
Favorite Honors Class: Comparative Study of Cultures-Professor Setta was amazing and made a class about religion and history fun even for a math and science geek.
Favorite Quote: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain
Daniel Chakmakjian
Major: Business Administration: Management Information Systems and Finance
Career Aspirations: I aspire to be gain some experience in the fields of Management Information Systems and Finance and then apply them to starting a business in Armenia. Following this I hope to get my PhD and do research for a University in the Boston area.
Favorite Quote: “I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity, and I am more invulnerable than Achilles; Fortune hath not one place to hit me.” Sir Thomas Browne
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: I love that in the Honors Program you are surrounded by people with similar motivations and the way everyone is very helpful to each other through mentoring and other honors sponsored programs.
Brett Diamond
Major: Biology
Career Aspirations: I hope to continue on to medical school and to become a physician
Favorite Quote: “Carpe Diem”
Favorite Honors Class: Inquiries in Social Science-The North of Ireland. It was interesting to study a region and conflict that I didn’t know much about in such depth.
Taylor Dickman
Major: Chemical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering Minor, Biology Minor
Fun Fact: I am the second of three Dickman’s to attend Northeastern for engineering. The first was my cousin and the third is my older sister who ‘followed’ me here for graduate school.
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: The Honors LLC. Many of my closest friends are Northeastern lived on my floor in my first year and you meet so many people from other majors that you won’t meet in classes.
Favorite Quote: “And I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life…” Kevin Spacey, American Beauty
Jamie Ducharme
Major: Journalism
Favorite Thing About Honors: The interesting classes available through the First Year Inquiry Series and the upper level seminars.
Career Aspirations: Working at a fashion or lifestyle magazine
Quote: “You have to be willing to get happy about nothing.” –Andy Warhol
Michael Dutra
Major: Industrial Engineering
Fun Fact: I enjoy cooking, golfing, and skiing.
Favorite Quote: “Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.” – Yogi Berra
Favorite Honors Class: Enhancing Honors
Ryan Fallon
Major: Behavioral Neuroscience
Fun Fact: I am from the best state – Maine!
Favorite Quote: “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: The Honors Dialogue to Rome! It was an absolutely amazing experience.
Gabrielle Franza
Major: Business Administration Concentration in Marketing, Communications Minor
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: Definitely the Honors housing! I met most of my friends from living near them in International Village. I have been able to meet and have friendships with such a diverse group of people.
Favorite Quote: “You are educated when you have the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” -Robert Frost
Career Aspirations: I hope to become a successful advertising executive for a firm that creates innovative and effective commercials and print advertisements.
Jade Hoang
Major: Pharmacy
Fun Fact: I was chased and stung by 8 bees at once, and bitten twice by my pet monkey.
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: My friends and advisors, the classes, events (Honors Outreach Project, Honors Evening, Nutcracker), all the opportunities, and free food!
Favorite Honors Class: Comparative Study of Cultures: World Religions
Brooke Hoger
Major: Communications, Minor in Art + Design
Fun Fact: I am a black belt and have taught youth martial arts for the past 3 summers.
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: The friends I’ve made and the sense of community the program has within the larger university.
Favorite Quote: “To build true confidence, one must have knowledge in the mind, honesty in the heart, and strength in the body.” – Amerikick
Andie Hyatt
Major: Business Administration Concentration in Management & Entrepreneurship
Fun Fact: I Love to travel. I want to visit every continent.
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: Access to smaller Honors sections of classes the university offers and unique classes created by the Honors Program.
Favorite Quote: “Ain’t no need to watch where I’m goin’, just need to know where I’ve been.” -Mater, Cars.
Christiana Jacobson
Major: Business Administration
Fun Fact: I teach windsurfing as my summer job.
Favorite Quote: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles happen.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Favorite Honors Class: The first year inquiry series course I took my first semester at Northeastern was definitely my favorite. It was a class about global poverty and how one person can change the world.
Brian Jimenez
Major: Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting
Fun Fact: I once played poker for 8 hours straight in Atlantic City!
Favorite Thing About Honors: Honors Housing: I still live with most of the kids who I lived with or next to my freshman year
Favorite Quote – “Here is my secret. It is very simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” – The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Dan Kurtz
Major: Behavioral Neuroscience, French Minor
Fun Fact: I play the piano, clarinet, and the tenor saxophone.
Favorite Honors Class: Legal Argumentation. I learned how to speak in front of a group of people and to read between the lines. The readings were challenging, yet engaging, and I got great feedback!
Career Aspirations: Possibly in a research position, or a publisher for a science magazine. Maybe a writer, or a plastic surgeon? With all of my interests, I could end up anywhere.
Chris LaColla
Major: Industrial Engineering
Fun Fact: I’m terrified of plastic playhouses.
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: I really enjoyed living in the Honors Living Learning Community (LLC). Living together with other honors students in International Village really builds a sense of community that fosters great relationships and cooperative work.
Career Aspirations: Ultimately, I would like to use my Industrial Engineering background to go into efficiency and management consulting.
Rebecca Larson
Major: Biochemistry
Fun Fact: I once drove three hours out of my way to see the Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas. I stayed there for three minutes.
Career Aspirations: I hope to go to medical school and eventually work abroad as a physician in internal medicine.
Favorite Honors Class: A directed study in Professor Strauss’s biochemistry lab. My class of seven learned an assortment of lab research techniques and even got to work on our own project.
Matt Mariano
Major: Communication Studies
Fun Fact: I’ve never been on a plane and I’ve never been in a cab.
Favorite Thing About Honors: I love working so closely with the Honors staff, they’re a great group of people who have truly made me feel at home here at Northeastern.
Favorite Quote: “Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”- Dr. Seuss
Nick Martin
Major: Health Science
Fun Fact: I’ve broken my nose twice, and I’m having a full nose job over winter break.
Favorite Thing About Honors: I really love the sense of community that the Honors Program provides. Its great knowing you have a whole support system other than the one within your major.
Favorite Quote: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”–John F. Kennedy
William McAneny
Major: International Affairs and Anthropology, with a minor in Global Social Entrepreneurship
Fun Fact: I don’t know how to ride a bike
Favorite thing about Honors: The extra classes only available to Honors students, smaller sections of classes that are normally huge, and specialized advising!
Career Aspirations: My dream job would be to work in a nonprofit, NGO, or social business that works internationally to effect positive change.
Kelsey Meagher
Major: Communications Concentration in Public Advocacy & Rhetoric
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: The opportunities to do awesome beyond-the-classroom learning are the best. I attended Partners in the Park in Utah at the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Parks.
Favorite Quote: ” Guess what? I have flaws. What are they? Oh I dunno, I sing in the shower? Sometimes I spend too much time volunteering. Occasionally I’ll hit somebody with my car. So sue me– no, don’t sue me. That is opposite the point I’m trying to make.” -Michael Scott, The Office.
Career Aspirations: I currently want to be a teacher, social worker, or a lawyer. For now, I am satisfied with being an events management co-op student.
Anthony Moffa
Major: Dual Chemical Engineering & Physic
Fun Fact: I enjoy cooking and like my kitchen in the upperclassmen apartment style residence hall.
Favorite Quote: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein
Favorite Honors Class: Foundations of Psychology and Interpreting the Day’s News
Nicholas Panarello
Major: Behavioral Neuroscience, Mathematics Minor
Favorite Thing About Honors: The Honors LLC and all of its amenities. It is great being part of a simpler, tight knit community, particularly at a large university. Also, the housing is awesome!
Career Aspirations: An Air Force physician.
Favorite Quote: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle
Joel Shaffer
Major: Civil Engineering
Fun Fact About Yourself: Back at home, my family has 3 goats: Tomás, Kevin, and Murphy.
Favorite Honors Course: Chemistry for Engineers
Career Aspirations: I’d like to work as a transportation engineer designing mass transit and rail systems for cities.
Bianca Smith
Major: Behavioral Neuroscience
Fun Fact: I have to smell absolutely everything before I eat it…and I have been Irish Dancing competitively for about 12 years.
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: My favorite thing about the Honors Program is the opportunity and support. With such a great support network of professors and advisors, the opportunities are endless. I would have never met Justice Ginsberg if it wasn’t for the Honors Staff!
Favorite Quote: “If ever there is a tomorrow when we’re not together…there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart…I’ll always be with you.” -A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh.
Caroline Smith
Major: Nursing
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: In a larger University, the Honors Program gives me a small community feeling. I know that I can always come to the Honors Office with any questions or issues that I have.
Favorite Quote: “Be the change you hope to see in the World.” -Mahatma Gandhi
Career Aspirations: I would like to be a Nurse Practitioner and I am thinking about working in neonatal or pediatric nursing.
Chelsea Souter
Major: Nursing
Fun Fact: I travelled to Guatemala to provide Nursing care to people along the Rio Dulce River who don’t have access to hospitals.
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: Living in the Honors Living Learning Community. I met nearly all of my friends within the first week here at Northeastern simply by living in the same building with them. This definitely helped me foster meaningful and lasting relationships because we all had something in common.
Career Aspirations: I’m not sure what type of graduate program I’m going to do after I get my RN. I’m extremely interested in the Emergency Room and I’m interested in furthering my education to become a Nurse Practitioner or a Nurse Anesthetist.
Sahar Tariq
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Fun Fact: I’ve lived in 4 different countries.
Favorite Thing About Honors: The Warren Conference Center. I love the ropes courses, the nice hotel, the pancakes, and all the free stuff. Also I love how helpful and approachable all the honors program staff is.
Favorite Honors Class: Honors Engineering Design. It’s a bit more advanced than the regular class, and we go to build our own electronic devices.
Justin White
Major: Computer Engineering
Fun Fact: I’m the only boy of six kids in my family.
Favorite Thing About the Honors Program: The people. Not to say that I don’t have a lot of really good friends outside of the Honors program, but I’ve met so many interesting, cultured, smart and fun people through the Honors program.
Favorite Quote: “Carpe Diem!” or “Carpe Noctem” depending on how much homework I have to do…
