Statistically, Giana Amaral ‘24 notes wryly, she is the exception at Bryant University, not the rule.

“My identity is very unique in the sense that I’m a first-generation college student from a lower middle class immigrant family,” she says. “I’m a women-identifying student on a predominantly male campus, and I’m even an International Business major, which is a very niche major here.”

Amaral has found power in those numbers and a passion for helping others on the narrow side of the curve. Her drive and inspiration, she says, comes from her mother, who was born into a traditional conservative family but wanted more for both herself and her daughter. “My grandmother told my mother that she was going to follow the traditional path and be a stay-at-home mom, but she went out and became a bus driver instead,” notes Amaral. “She’s always encouraged me and told I could become anything I wanted to be.”

It was Amaral’s mom who first researched Bryant and suggested its nationally ranked International Business program to her daughter, who was eager to travel, explore, and discover new things. But Amaral, a Warwick, Rhode Island, resident, had her heart set on studying out of state — until she visited the university and felt at home within the closeknit community.

“I don’t let my mom tell me ‘I told you so’ very often, but she does in this case,” Amaral laughs.

That doesn’t mean coming to school was easy, she admits. “As a first-year, first-generation student, absolutely everything is new to you. You feel like you’re behind and you’re almost ashamed to ask because you assume everybody else already knows.

“I had super serious impostor syndrome my first year,” Amaral recalls.

“With so many of the things I’ve tried, I’ve been scared at first. But I’ve found the courage, or faked the courage, to do them.”

But Amaral found her own solutions. “I started taking on leadership positions at Bryant to prove to myself that I didn’t just belong here, I could take the lead here,” she says. “I made a point of involving myself in things that I didn't do in high school because I was afraid.

“With so many of the things I’ve tried, I’ve been scared at first,” Amaral reflects. “But I’ve found the courage, or faked the courage, to do them.”  A performer with both the Bryant Singers choral group and the university’s The Bottom Line acapella group, she likens it to the stage fright she feels before each show: you power through until you succeed.

For Amaral, becoming a leader took the form of finding ways to support others. As a student ambassador and orientation leader, she helped new and prospective students answer the questions she struggled with as a first-generation student.

“The first thing students look for is someone they can relate to,” reflects Amaral. “Sometimes it's about just letting them see, ‘I'm a woman in business and I'm a first-generation college student — and I'm also involved in all these leadership positions. If you’re like I am and you’re worried that you won’t be able to succeed here, I'm here to prove to you that you can.’ ”

Amaral also became a resident assistant during her sophomore year. It can be frustrating to manage a hall, she admits with a laugh, and sometimes you have to be the “bad guy,” but it's worth it to help make sure that her floormates have someone to watch out for them. “My junior year, I wasn’t sure how to feel when they assigned me to a first-year hall, but there was not one duty shift where I was alone,” she remembers. “I always had students sitting with me, chatting with me, and singing along to musicals with me and watching movies with me.

“There are so many other powerful women in this program; you can see what it’s like to thrive as a woman in business — and you have a place where you can thrive yourself."

“Being seen as that older figure that people can look up to and have a conversation with, I think it really helped me figure out how to be a mentor and how much meant to me,” she says.

She also found other ways to give back as an RA, including organizing an annual feminine products drive for the nonprofit organization Dignity Matters. Putting the drive together, she says in her typically direct, pragmatic fashion, was a simple equation: opportunity + effort = impact.

Throughout her four years at Bryant, Amaral has excelled as an International Business major in a program known for its academic rigor. She’s especially proud of her team’s performance during the suite of courses known as IB Block — a challenging mix of subjects ranging from marketing to finance capped off with a business simulation competition where students run virtual international shoe companies.

“It's huge, it's intense and, when the students who took it before you tell you about it, they always tell you ‘You're in for a ride,” she laughs. “But when you look back, being able to do this really hard thing feels really rewarding and I think the outcome of learning how to run a business like that is something you're not going to get anywhere else.”

The coursework can be difficult, says Amaral, but the IB community, from professors to students, are there to support and propel you forward — and there’s a strong female presence in the major. “There are so many other powerful women in this program; you can see what it’s like to thrive as a woman in business — and you have a place where you can thrive yourself."

That last piece is especially important to her. As a first-year student, Amaral authored a research paper on women in business and discovered that only 20 percent of CEOs in the United States are women. “I think in some way, that’s when I truly started to understand the fortunate position that I am in and how important it is to try to help out people who aren’t in the same position,” she reflects.

“Seeing so many first gen students who’ve had similar paths come together and be a support center for one another is sort of incredible. It’s amazing what we’ve all been able to do.” 

One of the reasons she chose her other major, Entrepreneurship, she says, is because it would give her the tools and mindset to carve her own path and help her fulfill her dream of one day starting a business that would support organizations that help women.

This semester, Amaral made what is potentially her biggest impact thus far by assisting with the university’s annual Women’s Summit®, which brought together more than 1,000 women from across the region to empower, support, and encourage each other to excel professionally, personally, and financially.

Amaral ran the “Green Room” at the summit, which hosted the event’s speakers. It was especially exciting, says Amaral, to have one-on-one conversations with other women — including Meridith Webster, executive vice president of global communications and public affairs for Estée Lauder — about their respective paths and how Amaral could prepare for the future.

“It was pretty inspiring,” she says. “The Women’s Summit is a really powerful and encouraging moment for us to open up dialogues and have the important conversations we need to have and uplift one another. By bringing so many different people with so many different stories together, we can all learn from one another.”

That sort of community, she says, can make all the difference. One of her favorite moments at Bryant, she notes, was joining the university’s newly established chapter of Alpha Alpha Alpha, the national honor society for first-generation college students. “Seeing so many first gen students who’ve had similar paths come together and be a support center for one another is sort of incredible,” Amaral states. “It’s amazing what we’ve all been able to do.”