Brian Stewart

Hi, I’m Brian. I grew up in a pretty small town in Georgia—Chickamauga, GA, to be exact. There wasn’t a whole lot of diversity there, as I’m sure one can imagine. My high-school was no exception. Everyone I went to school with looked just like me: white farm boys from northwest Georgia. Their stories didn’t interest me; there were no differences between us. I couldn’t learn anything more from these people and I felt like the rest of the world was cut off from me, sliced in two by the great Appalachian Mountains. I wanted more—more culture, more stories, more people.

Four years ago, I found that at the University of Georgia. The diversity here mesmerized me and made me fall in love with cultures from around the world. The one that really caught my attention, though, was Latin American culture. I’d always heard so much about our southerly neighbors but now it was time to see for myself. I dove head first into the Spanish classes offered here at UGA and, once comfortable enough with my Spanish skills, went to Costa Rica on an “advanced Spanish” study abroad during the summer after my sophomore year. I used every available moment to speak to the locals and really take in the culture. I loved it. I still do.

Nothing has changed my life more than the Spanish program here at UGA. It opened doors to a whole new world—one for which I couldn’t have hoped to understand before. Now, as I finish my fourth year here, I’m preparing for my first internship: engineering in Bogotá, Colombia. I couldn’t be more excited.

My two passions, engineering and Spanish, are finally aligning and it’s all thanks to a curious first-year who thought the world had more to offer.