Nicole Pizzorni ’16

Like many people at AUP, I come from a somewhat mixed background. My family is Italian and I was born in Caracas, Venezuela. At the age of 9, we moved to Miami, Florida, where I lived for nine years. I’ve always liked learning about and being exposed to different cultures and when it came time to apply to university, I wanted to live in a country whose language I didn’t yet speak. I immediately liked AUP because of its diverse student body and because it seemed to present a unique way of living in the melting pot of culture, art, and history that is Paris.  

I had a somewhat rocky start here. After two years, I decided to take some time for myself and returned to AUP in 2014, ready to focus. Looking back on that time, I see clearly how AUP helped shape my current perspective and attitude. I can now easily adapt to new situations, through language, attitude, or ways of thinking, I’m a better public speaker, I’m less shy in unfamiliar contexts, and I’ve discovered within myself an even greater passion to discover the world. My professors were instrumental in guiding me towards more effective tools with which to forge my own academic path.

I soon fell in love with the new Management Information Systems major and decided to also minor in Politics. I must say that it never got old to walk into any AUP classroom and realize yet again how privileged you were to be learning with people who had such different stories, backgrounds, languages, cultures, and traditions to share.  

Thanks to my professors, I soon saw that my educational experience was enhanced when I kept an active extracurricular life. I was an AUP Student Advisor, which allowed me to meet and create friendships with incoming and returning students, while working in the Student Development Office helped me stay connected to other offices and departments. I was on AUP’s Flag Football team, was a member of Baytna à Vous, a student-led initiative that concentrates on the Syrian refugee crisis, created the Science and Technology Club that offers student-to-student workshops and conferences with guest speakers, and tutored in Financial Accounting, Corporate Finance, and Business Information Systems. Outside of AUP, I was heavily involved in the beatboxing community and helped expand our network by translating documents, making websites, managing databases, and organizing events across the globe.   

Living in a city like Paris and attending a school like AUP has been a privilege. I’ve traveled to places that I’d never seen before, made lasting friendships with people from around the world, and am looking forward to the next adventure, no matter where it takes me.