SAN ANTONIO – 23-year-old Emilia Denerville grew up in Cleveland, Ohio until her sophomore year of high school.
Then her family moved to Texas and she started over as the new kid. Growing up shy, making a move like that was a big change.
Able to adapt quickly to her new home in Houston, Denerville decided to leave for college to study communications at University of the Incarnate Word.
It was a major that made her enjoy the little details of getting to know people.
“I enjoy all the aspects of it, especially in the means of interpersonal communications just because you get to develop those relationships and you get to learn the intricacies of not only individuals and your relationships you develop through them, but also their relationship through media,” Denerville said.
Through her time at UIW, she faced challenges during the pandemic after only being on campus for one semester before the whole world changed.
“just going to completely online, it definitely was a hard transition” she said. “Mental health was definitely an issue for me that I faced just because, yeah you can talk to your family, or talk to your professor, but it’s not the same as talking to them in person.”
Returning to campus her junior year, Denerville was able to hit the ground running and make up for lost time.
Her advice to incoming freshmen is to make sure to choose the school that YOU want.
“Always make sure you feel like it’s home, regardless of where your friends are going or where your family tells you to go,” she said. “Take advantage of what each university has to offer you, because that’s the only way you’re going to make your experience different than everyone else.”
Emilia graduated from UIW with a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in communications and her education will continue at Syracuse University in New York, where she will be getting her PHD in mass communications with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.