In this week’s Pio Personality, we meet Alisa Nelson, a sophomore at DU. Nelson is majoring in international studies and biology and minoring in chemistry and anthropology. Nelson is very involved on campus. She can be found rowing with the Club Rowing team, working at the Pardee Center, helping at the Newman Center, hanging out with friends and so much more. Nelson is passionate about learning, but her special interest lies in the study of different religions and cultures.

Nelson credits her love of learning about different cultures and ideas to her very mobile childhood. She was born in Arlington, Texas and then moved to Liverpool, back to Texas, then to a remote jungle in Ecuador, to Quito (Ecuador’s capital), to Ghana, took a gap year in Senegal and then to Denver to attend school at DU. Alisa claims that moving around so much during her formative years was both a positive and negative experience simultaneously.

“I was exposed to different cultures, which made me open and more empathetic to other people. Plus, I benefit from all the cognitive perks of speaking different languages since I was younger. On the other hand, there is definitely something to be said, psychologically, about having a permanent home. It was difficult to form my identity because I did not have the comfort of calling one place home. I spent most of my formative years in high school in Ecuador, so it was difficult. I had an American passport, but I really hadn’t lived in the U.S.,” said Nelson.

Because Alisa struggled to find her place within the different countries and cultures, she found refuge in her parents’ faith. Her parents are both doctors who traveled with the Protestant church to administer medical care to individuals in the oil-based jungle she lived in, Shell.

Alisa wants to pursue a career in global health, which is why her areas of study are all very different, yet fit together quite well.

Although her adventurous upbringing is fascinating and unique, Nelson wishes people would look past her travels and get to know her on a more intimate level.

“I wish that people knew that the places I lived is not the most interesting thing about me. There are parts of me that are separate from where I’ve lived,” said Nelson.

Intelligent, helpful, considerate and pensive—one always wonders what Nelson is thinking about. Nelson makes a mean banana bread, can create ridiculously intricate braids in anybody’s hair and is wicked good at Hanabi, a Japanese card game that is cooperative rather than competitive.

Nelson is level-headed and is always willing to lend a hand or a listening ear. She has a heart of gold and truly inspires everyone she comes in contact with.