By Ana Rico (COM`25)

When you see Emma Quarequio (CAS`23) on campus, she may be running from one of her Anthropology seminars to one of the many coffee shops on campus, where she spends hours plugged into her laptop analyzing data for her senior honors thesis. You might also get a glimpse of her and her cleverness in the newspaper The Pinky Toe, where she is editor-in-chief, or maybe over at Fenway, since she is a major baseball fan. Now, only a few months away from graduation, Emma reflects on her experience at the College of Arts and Sciences, life at BU, and everything in between.  

Born and raised in Miami, Emma was a guaranteed transfer student. She started her college journey at Florida State University, where she took her first anthropology class. “I’ve always been a people’s person,” says Emma, which is why she felt excited about studying exactly that: people. But it wasn’t until she got to experience BU’s “robust” Anthropology program that she knew CAS was the perfect fit for her.

“CAS is a place where you can befriend people from very different walks of life and corners of the world,” says Emma, who loves how big and diverse the college is. At the same time, she appreciates the small size of the Anthropology department, where she has had the opportunity to establish enriching relationships with the faculty. At one point, Emma says, she had a class that consisted of the professor, a graduate student, and herself. She believes that the departments’ “intimacy in the classroom” has encouraged her to get out of her comfort zone, always feeling challenged by professors who are “deeply invested in their students and their success.”

“I love understanding people and everything about them,” says Emma, which is why she is interested in research. Since her sophomore year she knew she wanted to write a senior honors thesis, but she was missing an advisor. Emma was looking for someone who could help her see the world in a different way, and she found exactly that in Professor Merav Shohet. “Even though her class was mostly theory, I loved the way that she thought, and the way that she made me think,” says Emma. During her junior year, Emma asked Professor Shohet to be her advisor, not knowing she would also become her “biggest cheerleader.” Emma describes Professor Shohet as someone who not only sees potential in everyone, but also helps them “grow in conducive ways, using the foundations they already have.”

Emma has a sister on the autistic spectrum. This not only drove her to pursue a minor in Autism Spectrum Disorders through Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, but it also influenced the topic she chose for her thesis. Emma is researching how neurotypical siblings care for autistic siblings. By studying how these relationships evolve, and how they can help us get a better understanding of kinship and moral responsibilities, Emma is eager to finally understand what this siblings’ dynamic of care looks like.

“Everyone likes to laugh regardless of who you are,” says Emma, who outside of the classroom works for two of BU’s satirical newspapers, The Bunion, and its sister publication, The Pinky Toe. She has always enjoyed satire because she believes laughter can help raise awareness about certain social causes. Emma is certain that unconventional environments can serve as vessels for positive change, and getting involved with these two publications was a way of proving that.

Initially, The Pinky Toe had been exclusively run by women. When Emma became the second-ever editor-in-chief, she proposed the idea of including people of marginalized genders and LGBTQ+ identities to the staff, a suggestion that was met with lots of support. At The Pinky Toe, Emma says, everyone believes that comedy can be a powerful educational tool. “If you can get people to laugh, you can get them to listen,” says Emma, who has ensured this publication becomes a place where marginalized people can bond over their overlapping experiences through comedy.

While at BU, Emma also paired her interest in advocating for marginalized groups with her love for baseball. She has always been a fan of the sport, even describing it as one of the “main pillars of her personality,” but Emma’s passion goes further than Friday afternoon games at Fenway. During a summer vacation, Emma interned for the Miami Marlins Foundation, working with athletes with disabilities, and from other marginalized communities, showcasing her belief that positive change can come from anywhere.

Counting down the days to graduation, Emma shares that she is a very different person now that when she first got to BU. “Here I felt like I had enough room to grow and learn,” says Emma, who is grateful for a school that offered a “wealth of experiences,” and remains in awe of how much she has learned from people who were only being themselves. Not nervous, but excited for life after college, Emma wants to thank CAS, which, she says, was the “the perfect place” for her, and, she says, the best college for those hungry for knowledge.