FSU Trailblazer: Christina Quinlan

By Colby Itkoff on April 1, 2016

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 Every week, the Florida State Trailblazer series highlights the accomplishments of a student who is doing new, important, and exciting work. Balancing a hectic academic career, extensive extracurriculars, work, and her personal life, Christina Quinlan exemplifies what it means to be a trailblazer, and has her sights on an exciting future. We sat down with her to get a glimpse of her everyday life and why she is deserving of this title.

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Photo courtesy of Christina Quinlan

Q: What is your hometown?

A: Jacksonville Beach, Florida.

Q: What’s your major?

A: Media Communication Studies, and I’m minoring in Psychology, English, and Business.

Q: What year of school are you in?

A: I’m a junior.

Q: Why did you pick your major?

A: When I was a freshman, I came in as an exploratory student which gave me the ability to not be immediately locked into one area. Through this program, I ended up taking a lot of classes that pushed me towards communications. With communications, I can choose to write, I can do public relations, I could go the marketing route – there are a lot of options.

Q: What is your favorite thing about FSU?

A: I absolutely love our campus, and it’s beautiful. Something I find unique to our school is that students and professors genuinely care about each other, and the community is great. Florida State feels like a second home.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

A: I work out a lot and play a ton of intramural sports here like football, softball, dodgeball, and volleyball. I was recently inducted into my honors fraternity, Phi Sigma Pi, and next semester I’ll be on the executive board as historian. At that point I’ll be taking pictures and updating social media, which goes along with my major. I am a community team member of the Republican Party of Florida with which I do voter registration. I love being a part of RPOF because I get to meet people and spread the word, and generally get people politically involved in a time when our millennial generation tends to be politically apathetic and uninformed. I am also a part-time server which gives me the ability to enjoy more of that similar person-to-person interaction.

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Photo courtesy of Christina Quinlan

Q: How would you describe yourself?

A: Determined, friendly, compassionate, fun, and hard-working.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

A: In 10 years I’d be 31, I would love to live in a big city because those are the areas that attract a lot of the jobs I am interested in. I would be working in either public relations or marketing for a sports team. While I love Jacksonville, Atlanta sounds great. I am incredibly close with my family so I wouldn’t be too far from them. Oh, and I can’t forget that future german shepherd.

Q: What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment during your time at FSU?

A: There are a few that I can think of that are all equally significant to me. Getting into the communication program here was a huge step toward my career. Losing 70 pounds since my freshman year was huge. I was also thrilled to not only be inducted into Phi Sigma Pi, but I was recently elected to our e-board as historian.

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Photo courtesy of Christina Quinlan

Q: If you could go back and change something in your time at FSU, would you? If so, what would you change?

A: I’m not so sure I’d change anything because I think everything has panned out pretty well, but I do wish I become more involved with clubs related to my major earlier in my years here so I might have an easier time deciding what to do with my career. That being said, I didn’t mind being in the exploratory program because its flexibility and wide range of options helped me a lot.

Q: Tell us more about your fraternity.

A: Phi Sigma Pi is an honors, co-ed fraternity based on scholarship, fellowship, and leadership. We are always really involved in philanthropy and giving back to others. Right now, we’re working on Relay for Life, an organization that raises money to fund cancer research. This is event is especially important to me because my mother had breast cancer. Additionally, we are involved in The Big Event which takes people around Tallahassee to clean up waste and litter to help the environment. Being in Phi Sigma Pi has been so rewarding because we get to give back to the community while meeting people and making friends with those who have similar interests as me and are in the same programs here at FSU. I also have opportunities to create connections with alumni, which is highly advantageous for my career. We also have time for fun! We go on retreats, like the trip we just took to the Wild Adventures theme park in Georgia.

Q: What personal hardships have you faced that may have affected your experience here at Florida State?

A: This semester, my dad was laid off from his job because of cognitive issues he’s been having. I know how difficult degenerative cognitive problems are because my grandmother had Alzheimer’s. Not only is this emotionally hard for our family, but because my mom has a teacher’s salary with two kids in college – plus my dad’s expensive medical bills – money has been tight.

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Photo courtesy of Christina Quinlan

Q: Have you met anyone here at FSU that has heavily influenced you or inspires you?

A: Absolutely. The first person is Barry Solomon, who was an advertising professor of mine last semester. He used to work at a huge advertising firm in New York City, had all of this money, nice cars – all of the things he wanted. But, he still wasn’t truly happy, so he ended up giving it all up and coming back to teach at FSU because it’s something he’s passionate about. It just goes to show that life is too short to not do what makes you happy. The other person is Andy Ellis, another professor of mine, and I took a class of his last semester and I’m taking another with him now. He teaches my political communication and campaigning course. He’s worked on so many different jobs, which really helps motivate me because I’m still relatively undecided. He’s worked on campaigns, in public relations, took political photographs for different media outlets, and he even went the social media route. He taught us a lot in his class how to be successful in life, and not just in politics. He’s just a cool dude. Essentially, Barry showed me to do what makes me happy, while I can relate to Andy and he’s living proof that you don’t have to be locked into one career forever.

Q: You mentioned a large weight loss. What inspired that?

A: Losing weight is a weird thing to deal with because you still see yourself as what you were before and it’s hard to adjust. I had always gone on diets and I always was overweight and just loved food. At the end of my freshman year here I was unhappy and just eating crap without controlling myself. I remember talking to one of my friends and we both decided to lose weight together. Being as heavy as I was, just simply changing my eating habits helped me drop weight quickly. I mainly did cardio, and after the summer and I had lost 35 pounds, I added more weight training. I would go to exercise classes and eat clean foods. I let myself eat 100-calorie popcorn and peanut butter. The next summer I started the Kayla Itsines BBG workout. I didn’t lose too much weight then but I toned up. When I say I’m gonna do something, that’s just how I am – I’m gonna do it. It’s almost addicting, watching the numbers go down on the scale.

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Photo courtesy of Christina Quinlan

Q: Is there anything about yourself you would like to add that I might not have thought to ask?

A: I type 130 words per minute, which I’m proud of! I love the Jets and the Mets – I’m a big New York sports fan because a lot of my family is from there. I’m a dog person and my favorite Netflix show is New Girl. I’m really good at making raps. (Editor’s note: this is the point at which I look at Christina in both disbelief and extreme suspicion.) I’m not good at freestyles, but if you give me 5 minutes I can rap about things and it’ll actually be good!

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Photo courtesy of Christina Quinlan

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