Lauren Elliott, junior political science major and global supply chain management minor, is unapologetically herself in everything she does. Elliott plays a prominent role in the communication department and in Fraternity and Sorority Life on campus, in addition to her external involvement in foreign affairs internships.

Elliott’s internships help her to connect with a broader community outside of campus, most notably her position as an ambassador for the North American Development Bank (NADBank). NADBank was created as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement to ensure symmetrical, sustainable development with open lines of communication on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to increase the efficiency of trade between the two countries.

“My job is basically to learn as much about the organization, to learn how to effectively communicate for their organization and bring that to Trinity’s campus and talk about it with different faculty and staff,” Elliott said. “It’s really a way to inform people on what’s going on with the U.S. government, what’s going on with sustainable development, what’s going on with politics down on the border and about, you know, what is the innovation that’s happening down there.”

As a political science major, Elliott’s focus and passion is heavily concentrated in international politics. With help from her advisor, Katsuo Nishikawa, Elliott was able to align her Trinity education with aspects of political science that interest her.

“I’m really passionate about public policy. I’m also passionate about the creation of the legal system, a lot of legislation,” Elliott said. “And so NADBank does a lot of policy, but they also practice a lot of policy because they’re a governmental organization. And so I applied for the ambassador program through him [Dr. Nishikawa], and I got the job.”

Elliott is also currently a recruitment co-chair for her sorority Sigma Theta Tau; however, Elliott didn’t initially intend to join a Greek organization at Trinity. After some convincing from family friends, Elliott realized she would lose nothing by giving Greek life a chance, leading her to request a bid from just a single organization: Sigma.

“I would say Sigmas are some of the most genuine people that I’ve met on campus,” Elliott said. “But they are also so diverse in what they’re active in. There’s no Sigma who is active outside of Sigma in the same thing. And so it’s really cool to be able to come together at the end of the day and hear about what everyone is doing but also know that they’re some of your closest friends… And I think that’s kind of why I chose to be a recruitment chair, to find those people and make sure that they know that they have a home on campus if they want it.”

Elliott is also an intern for the communication department, where she hosts her own radio show on KRTU’s “Indie Overnite” once a week. On these weekly shows, Elliott and her team invite different students to discuss various topics pertaining to student involvement on Trinity’s campus.

“The indie side of KRTU is really for the students by the students, and so we wanted to create a place where more students can have the opportunity to enjoy KRTU other than just listening to it and get more student involvement,” Elliott said. “It’s also great advertising for Trinity. I mean, to have a global radio station that reaches across the whole world with our app online, and then also through 91.7 FM you can reach all the way to Austin, to have that many listeners and learning about different things happening on Trinity’s campus is really cool.”

Balancing each of these strenuous roles can be challenging, but for Elliott, having faith and confidence in herself makes juggling her roles that much easier. Having ultimate trust in yourself and who you are guides Elliott in everything she does.

“I can’t change things that have happened to me, but I also can’t change the fact that those have molded me into the person that I am today, and I don’t want to apologize for that,” Elliott said. “I think there’s this stigma around fitting into a box in society, and I don’t really want to abide by that, and I’m not going to apologize for that. … And so you kind of have to just keep going and know that it’s all gonna work out and having that ultimate trust in yourself to be able to feel like you’re gonna be successful in life at some point one day is really freeing.”