Ask the Global Officer: Caitlin Morelli

On Wednesday, Caitlin Morelli, SSH’16, leaves Boston’s Logan Air­port for Chha­tra­pati Shivaji Inter­na­tional Air­port in Mumbai, India—the site of her first stop in her new role as one of Pres­i­dent Joseph E. Aoun’s first two stu­dent ambas­sadors, the Global Offi­cers. The Westch­ester, New York, native will visit 10 cities in six coun­tries during the first three months of the journey, meeting with a range of people who work in the social enter­prise field. Here, she tells us more about how she’s pre­pared for this once-​​in-​​a-​​lifetime opportunity.

What part of the Global Officer expe­ri­ence are you most looking for­ward to?

The thought of all of the new and exciting people I will meet has made me most excited. In my opinion, the best part of trav­eling is making con­nec­tions with new people, even if you only cross paths for a short time. I’ve met some incred­ible people within the social enter­prise field who have been a huge inspi­ra­tion to me, and I know that the inter­ac­tions I will have over the next six months will pro­vide me oppor­tu­ni­ties to keep learning. I’m also incred­ibly eager to try new food! I’ll try almost any­thing put on my plate, and I’ve spent the last few weeks researching new foods and flavors.

What do you expect your first few days to look like?

I chose to start my journey in Mumbai. India has always been at the top of my travel wish list, and I wanted to get far out of my com­fort zone. I’ve never been to a mega-​​city before, so I think the first few days will con­sist of me finding my way around and arranging meet­ings for the week. I’m so thankful that sev­eral North­eastern alumni and stu­dents have already agreed to show me around, so I plan to con­nect with them over the first weekend. My fellow Global Officer Matt Bilotti, DMSB’15, and I have worked hard plan­ning our itin­er­aries and map­ping out our goals, but nei­ther of us knows how things will go once we hit the ground run­ning. I think this first trip will involve a lot of trial and error while we get into the groove of our jobs.

Is there any­thing spe­cial you’re taking with you?

I always travel with choco­late. A great piece of advice I once got about trav­eling is to always have com­fort food on hand for days you might get sick or miss home. For me that’s always choco­late or peanut butter. Not to say I won’t be trying all the food I can get my hands on, it’s just nice to have around. I’m also taking a Canon A-​​1 film camera that my par­ents bought me for Christmas. It weighs a lot, but I’m trying to get better at pho­tog­raphy and want to cap­ture all of the beau­tiful places I will see on film.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge?

Trav­eling alone will chal­lenge me in new ways. Con­stantly being on the go can be exhausting, and in my expe­ri­ence, it always helps to have friends around to get you through those low points while trav­eling. I’m sure there will be times when I get home­sick or days in which nothing seems to go right, but I also know my friends and family back home are just a video call away—not to men­tion everyone at North­eastern who has been so sup­portive. Luckily, I’ll be meeting North­eastern stu­dents, par­ents, and alumni along the way who have agreed to give me a tem­po­rary home away from home. I don’t think I’ll be lonely with such a great net­work of people.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received while preparing for this experience?

“Develop a rou­tine and stick to it.” Whether that’s run­ning every morning, writing in a journal, or taking a few min­utes to reflect on the day, I’ve been told how impor­tant it is to develop small rou­tines that keep you grounded when things get crazy. I’ve told myself I’ll keep a journal, so hope­fully I can keep it up.

The other piece of advice that I loved is to be open-​​minded and present in my inter­ac­tions with new people. You never know what you will learn if you really invest in a con­ver­sa­tion with someone and put aside all the little gad­gets that are con­stant dis­trac­tions. I hope I am able to embody this mindset throughout my trip and make some life­long con­nec­tions along the way.

-By Jordana Torres