What’s a Hoya?

What’s a Hoya? is one of those familiar phrases most Georgetown students heard from our Blue and Grey tour guide when we visited campus as prospective students. Yet after arriving on the Hilltop, we begin to find just how integral that question is to the Georgetown experience. It is a dynamic question that we often ask ourselves, but rarely explore at the community level. The What’s a Hoya? program is a GUSA initiative launched in partnership with the university to sponsor exploration by first-year students into these critically important topics.

Participating students will learn about the fantastic resources and opportunities Georgetown has to offer and what we can do to improve our community for all of its members. Sessions on the themes of mentorship, well-being, and diversity, will include down to earth discussions with select faculty, staff and upperclassmen students from across campus helpful. After each session there will be an online reflection sent out through HoyaLink. For each session attended and reflection completed, you will receive anincentive for sophomore year housing selection. For more information on the housing incentive, please visit the “Housing Incentive” section of this page.

Our Goals

Georgetown has an incredible amount of student groups, university programs, and opportunities to engage in academics, student life and personal development that make the most of your time on the Hilltop. However, for many students, exposure to these opportunities goes unnoticed. Experiences such as New Student Orientation present incredible amounts of information in a short amount of time without an ability to follow up later.

Georgetown students are incredible involved in what they do on campus, but there is a sense that we lack a common background, understanding, or vocabulary to build a truly integrated community. While many incredible advocacy efforts have and will continue to work to ensure university policy promotes the best in student life, addressing student culture has proven much more difficult. What’s a Hoya?seeks to fill that need by promoting engagement, creating a level playing field of knowledge about the programs, resources, and student groups Georgetown has to offer, and inviting discussion of identity and diversity and what that means for Georgetown.

Housing Incentive

Participating students will be awarded the housing incentive for each theme (i.e., mentorship) the student attends. In order to qualify for the incentive, the student must attend one session (out of the four possible dates per theme) AND complete the online reflection sent out after the session.

The incentive itself is a +0.10 boost to housing selection points. The maximum boost a student can receive is +0.30 overall, after attending and filling out the assessments for one session of each theme. Attending multiple sessions of an individual module will not result in more than one housing boost. For example, if you attend all four sessions of the mentorship module, the incentive to your housing will be the same as if you only attended one.

This increase in selection points will improve your housing selection time relative to other students not participating in the program. However, it is important to know that the increase does not guarantee the type of housing you want will be available at your selection time. All remaining questions about the program’s effect on housing selection may be directed to the program coordinators by emailing [email protected].