I sat down with Isabella ‘26, a multifaceted Stetson University double majoring in Finance and Business Law, with a minor in Psychology and concentration in Investments. 

Q. What are you involved in at Stetson? 

I– honestly, I’m all over the place. My main thing that I’ve been really focusing on recently is working for the, as an analyst, for the Hatter Angel Network. And it’s a student led venture capital fund that we recently went to Atlanta to listen over. I think it was 500 or 800. Company– startup companies pitch their pitch decks to us, it was about two minutes each pitch deck and where we were allowed to network with industry professionals. And another thing I do with Stetson, probably… I’m also the representative for Hatter Angel Network as a board, I serve as a board observer for Xendoo accounting. It’s one of the startup companies that the network invested in, in 2021.

Q. Okay, what are you involved in outside of Stetson? 

So, I just actually got an internship a couple of days ago for a company, a startup company called Care Yaya. So it’s a paid internship, and it’s a health tech startup that they’re based in North Carolina. Their mission essentially, is to advance, advance homecare for elderly individuals and medically vulnerable children. And basically, what I’ll be doing is I’m going to contact in case managers and see CTOs and CFOs of the hospitals and skilled nursing facilities and hospitals that are surrounding University areas, because I need to spread awareness about their program. I work for them for about 15 to 20 hours a week, where I commute back and forth to Orlando and here and talking to people, people in the assisted living facilities to spread awareness about the program. I also assist my mom in our real estate business. I’m a real estate investor. Currently, we have two units running in Sarasota. Right now my mission in real estate is really looking for other properties to invest in.  I, also a big part of my outside of school, is modeling. I’ve been modeling since I was like four years old. I started in Asia. But when I moved to the U.S. in 2018, I stopped until I started again in the U.S. market in 2020. And I’ve been doing it ever since. I’m signed with three agencies: Professionally Pretty, Model Scout and Lan Models in Hong Kong. I also competitively dance. My passion, is dance. It’s a lot of work and pressure but it’s really rewarding. I find myself doing mentally better when I can dance. 

Q. So, like how do you get everything done?

Okay, so previous semesters, it was, I was able to work around my busy schedule, because most of my class attendance wasn’t– weren’t, they weren’t mandatory. So I would just go when I felt like I needed to, and that I’m a straight A student, so I maintain all A grades. But it does get difficult because, since I’m taking five classes a semester, and I have two internships. It’s really hard for me to manage the time but the easiest way I’ve found to, being able to manage it, is dedicate about, I don’t know, three hours a day, just to sit down without any distractions, and working on all of my assignments, getting them done as soon as possible…  I really just, I keep a really structured count Google Calendar. And I am checking off all the shots that I have to do.

Q. Do you think you fit the standard of a swamped student? 

Yeah, I–I honestly think I do fit the stereotype. I guess. It’s just, I keep myself so busy with like, three, four or five different things that it’s, I barely ever have free time. But the best part about staying busy, and the way I do, is that I don’t feel like I’m like, incredibly overworked… Although I do feel overworked if I don’t feel like I’m not getting rewarded from it. Because I know everything that I do, I’m doing it for a purpose. For modeling, it’s to build my portfolio to build income and pay for my law school, saving up for law school. But in for, you know, all of my real estate stuff. It’s, it all has, you know, accumulated in creating this really good resume and basis foundation for my future business. You know, adventures, I guess.

Q. Yeah, absolutely. So how are you faring right now with midterms?

Oh, they’re definitely really rough. For me. I think I pull–  So my midterms are thankfully almost over. I only have one more paper to write, which I’m still knocking that out. But last week was, that really heavy week for me because I had four shoots during the week, but I also had three exams and two written like exams. And so it was a really hectic week, I had probably pulled like two all nighters trying to finish everything. But I honestly, I was very, I was very satisfied with the results that I got on my midterms. It’s, I, how I like to look at it is you really can’t just, you can’t get around like the stress of midterms. So it’s like it’s rapid and you know, ‘knock it out and all’ I just kept thinking in my head. I’m like, okay, just after this week, after this week, after this test, you know, it’s just it’s almost over like and then you can get some rest.

Q. Do your professors make adjustments to your circumstances when it comes to traveling and things like that?

No, not really. Yeah, unless it’s a set Stetson event, they don’t really excuse me. So for every, so one of my classes is for every class I miss, they take off 2% of my final grade. And so I’ve been really just asking my professors for extra credits and make up for that 2%. So yeah, so that’s what I’ve been doing to keep my grades up is just a lot of extra credit. And honestly, that’s like, probably my biggest life hack is going to office hours talking to them, getting to know them.

Q. Do you have any more life hacks for people who have a strenuous life or are thinking about adding more to their schedule?

Adding more to your schedule? I think. So, so I’m the type of person who is like, if I can do it, I’ll do it. You know, and if I can learn it, I’ll learn it. And so I’ve been really trying to reflect on my decisions and because my schedule is so busy now I have to take a step back and really evaluate what I’m investing my time in. And is that viable, or you know, a good thing to be investing in? Is it going to serve my interests? Will it be beneficial for me, or am I just doing it?  And if you know, if you’re wanting to add something to your schedule, you should really sit back and think, ‘Hey, am I doing this because it’ll be beneficial for my career?’ Maybe that’s a good thing to add into if you have the time. But make sure that you, you know, have enough energy and enough for more to dedicate your time to.