Alum Feature: Meet Juliette!
Juliette Sellgren just graduated from UVA with her Bachelor's degree in Economics. She has been an integral part to the BRC’s programs and has been a BRC Fellow for two years. Here’s an interview with her.
Q. What leadership positions and activities did you hold while at UVA?
A. I was a podcast creator and host for 5 years. It’s called The Great Antidote Podcast. I also was a Teaching Assistant for principles of micro and macroeconomics, and behavioral economics for two years. My other big commitment was to be an Research Assistant for Prof. Charles Holt for four years.
Q. What’s the most interesting idea or issue to you right now?
A. Where the line is for intervention on the foreign policy front. Although I am a freedom-loving non-interventionist, I understand that there is a game-theoretical case for intervening on the global stage sometimes to prevent the worst outcomes for everyone on Earth. But most people who advocate for intervention want to do so even when our way of life is not clearly on the line. So where is the line?
Q. How have you grown intellectually throughout your time at UVA?
A. I realized that, unlike what is shown in the news and what is often represented online, most people, including myself, are apolitical or put politics lower down on the list of things that are important in life. I have realized that I have values that supersede political ones, like truth and love. Free speech and pluralism, political values, are not just important for some reason; they are important for the very reason that they facilitate the discovery of truth and the finding of love. That might sound like a saccharine overcomplication of something simple, and it might be. But isn't that what universities and thinking are for? I realize now that every conversation and pursuit must be backed by something greater, a fundamental value which drives and enriches a person. Now I act with more motivation and I act less. I think if everyone did that, we would have a less polarized world.
Q. How you have interacted with Blue Ridge, and what you have liked about it?
A. Blue Ridge has been a cornerstone of my time at UVA and to my learning of the lesson above. I have been in six reading groups with the Blue Ridge Center. I led one of them, the last one, and it was like the culmination of my BRC career. I love Blue Ridge. It was a place for me to find the truth and loving relationships, ones formed through the common pursuit of an end. Sometimes that end was knowledge, true knowledge, and sometimes that end was being in good company. Without the Blue Ridge Center, I would not have reached for subjects so far from my own discipline. It is way easier to commit to learning about foreign policy or law or something vastly different from what you study for one hour as opposed to a whole semester, and there is less on the line. The learning which happens at BRC and the relationships which are formed are entirely voluntary, since you opt-in, the gains are immense and come at very little cost.