Overcoming struggles
Looking back on the past four years Anna Russo, sociology and criminology major and leadership studies minor, has done it all. Russo is a part of six honor societies, a honors student as well as being very active on campus. Russo is the president of campus activities and programming board (cap board), was a student fellow of the IMPACT leadership LLC, peer tutor, student ambassador, orientation leader and even had the opportunity to be an orientation coordinator. The list goes on and on.
It wasn’t always this way for Russo. In high school, Russo suffered from drug and alcohol addiction. She wasn’t always in the best place during that time and didn’t excel in school. She didn’t even know if she was going to go to college.
Now Russo celebrates six years of sobriety as of March and has the honor of being valedictorian for the class of 2019 at Cabrini University.
“One of my proudest accomplishments is I’m in personal long-term recovery from drug and alcohol addiction,” Russo said. “I didn’t think I could go to college sober, it just seemed totally out of reach, so the fact that not only was I able to successfully complete college without being able to drink or use, I was able to thrive while being here.”
Russo shares her story of addiction to inspire others. She wants to stand as a role model for any kid that is struggling thinking that they won’t make it. She hopes her story and accomplishments will inspire others that everyone will overcome their struggles and excel.
“I hope that any kid in high school that is struggling like what I went through hears this as inspiration to never give up, that everything will work out,” Russo said.
Class of 2019 valedictorian
Russo is very excited about being given this honor. She has worked hard all four years and has accumulated a GPA of 3.98. Russo has made a name for herself on campus by being very active on campus and taking leadership in a lot of activities.
The process of being picked for valedictorian is more than just looking at a student’s overall GPA. You have to put together an essay, list of accomplishments and give a speech to the academic advisory committee.
“I’m very excited about it but also I think I’m still in shock. As soon as I gave my speech to the committee, I felt on cloud nine, because I felt like no matter what happened I killed it,” Russo said. “I gave it my best and I just felt really good about how I did and so once I found out I was just on cloud nine, like kept the windows down in my car, jammed out to my favorite songs and I was like, wow, life is good.”
Russo says the excitement has simmered down but whenever someone brings it up she is reminded of her accomplishments and is overjoyed.
“Whenever someone brings it up I’m like, whoa, this is crazy. There were so many candidates it’s so crazy amazing that it just blows my mind that out of those people, I was selected,” Russo said.
The Cabrini community has helped shape Russo into who she is today. She was surrounded around people that motivated her to do good and helped her throughout her years here.
“When I came into Cabrini I was not necessarily prepared to succeed in college…I didn’t know if I was even going to stay at Cabrini. It was really the people that stuck out to me. So like the staff or the faculty in my learning community and the staff and the seal office and all the people that are bound to interact with throughout my leadership roles, they shown that they care about me.”
Future after Cabrini
After Cabrini Russo is attending The Ohio State University pursuing a masters in higher education and student affairs. Russo also is given the opportunity to work as a graduate assistant too.
“It’s a two-year program and when I went out and interviewed, I interviewed for a graduate assistantship too,” Russo said. “I’ll be working with their honors and scholars program. And the awesome thing about that is that I’ll work 20 hours a week, they pay my tuition and fees and they give me an additional 17 grand a year. So all I’m paying for is my apartment and I’m getting a master’s degree and two years of experience.”
Russo isn’t sure what area of student affairs she would like to go into. She does know that she wants to work at a college or university. The main thing Russo wants to do is to interact and help students and support them with whatever they are going through, whether it be academics or student activities.
Russo has gone through some struggles in life but she knew that the only way to get help was to ask. All the help and mentorship she has had in the past six years has encouraged her to be an advocate and has a drive to help others.
“I think oftentimes we think we need to have it all figured out ourselves and that it’s weak if we asked for help or like say that we don’t know something or something like that. Ask for help if you need it,” Russo said. “Seek out people that you respect and admire and ask for their opinion. Ask for their advice. There’s been a lot of people that have kind of served in a mentorship role for me and I made it a point to reach out to them, see how they got to where they are today and putting in work to follow in their footsteps.”
