Julia Weiss

Athlete, Change Agent, Consultant, Explorer, Global soul, Idea generator, Investor, Life mentor, Student, World traveler

My name is Julia Weiss. I am a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign pursuing a triple-major in East Asian Studies, Management/International Business, and Marketing. Once I graduate in May 2014, I will start working full-time as an analyst for Huron Consulting Group in Chicago. Being from the northern suburbs, I am excited to get back to the city. At Illinois, I have devoted my time to making campus an engaging place for students and connecting students with alumni through my work for Student Alumni Ambassadors – the student branch of the University of Illinois Alumni Association. I have thoroughly enjoyed making an impact on campus through programs designed to encourage Illini spirit and pride. I have gotten so much out of my University experience and I want to pay it forward. I started taking Mandarin Chinese my freshman year of high school and have fallen in love with learning the language and culture; I have been to China thrice since. A trip after my sophomore year of high school confirmed that I wanted to focus on Chinese, and so I studied abroad at Beijing Foreign Studies University in spring 2012 on a language-intensive program that featured 20 hrs/wk of Mandarin, an internship experience at a law firm, and a modern history class. I was lucky enough to be invited back as the student representative for the UI Alumni Association's China Alumni Summit in November, 2013. Outside of school, I am an active individual and work as a soccer referee. I started playing soccer in kindergarten and began reffing my freshman year of high school. It’s far and away the best part-time job I could imagine because it keeps me involved in the game I love and it helps me make a positive impact on the kids I ref – especially the young girls.