With the return of the school year comes the 2022-2023 class of Lincoln Scholars.
Arizona State University Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics encourages students from all disciplines to engage in ethical issues through its Lincoln Scholars seminars. The program awards scholarships to students who participate in a one-credit seminar featuring community speakers and ASU faculty, as well as discussions and interactive activities.
Brianna Iannone, junior in the WP Carey School of Business.
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“We provide a space for students to address ethical topics by bringing in faculty from other fields to share knowledge and engage students on important concepts such as personal data privacy, the future of higher education and subjects close to the mission of our center, such as humanity. technology and ethical innovation,” said Sean Kenneywho founded the Lincoln Scholars program and serves as director of the educational program.
Brianna Iannone, a budding entrepreneur and junior in the WP Carey School of Business, joins the program this year.
Iannone is pursuing a degree in business management as well as a certificate in American Sign Language, while also serving as a Girl Scout troop leader. She restored the Alpha Phi Omega Eta Eta Chapter to ASU in 2021, where she is serving her second term as president, and also recently assumed the role of ASU president. WP Carey Dean Advisory Board. Furthermore, she received a Gold Award for her service as a Girl Scout, recognizing her work in creating adaptive and sensory toy libraries.
Question: Tell us about yourself and your background.
Answer: Currently I am studying business management and hope to obtain a certificate in ASLAmerican Sign Language, but it’s a work in progress. I want to become a social entrepreneur and open a business making adapted toys for people with different abilities. I try to be very active on campus and in my community. I studied Greek life, but decided it wasn’t for me. So I founded a service fraternity called Alpha Phi Omega, where I currently serve as president. I am very active on the WP Carey Dean Advisory Board; this year I am president. My goal is to make sure we are as accessible as possible at WP Carey.
I am a lifelong Girl Scout and troop leader. I volunteer to mentor other girls and young women in Girl Scouts and those who earn a Gold Award, and I enjoy teaching archery and other outdoor skills. Girl Scouts has given me many opportunities and really helped me succeed. This led me to create Campus Girl Scouts at ASU this year, and I hope to give more women the opportunity to have that feeling of sisterhood around them and give more women the opportunity to mentoring young women and girls.
A lot of things I do involve volunteering. I love being with people and I just want to spend my time on earth making the world a better place.
Q: Could you tell us more about how your passion for accessibility developed?
A: Of course. I live with multiple learning disabilities myself, so I have experienced the negative feedback that learning disabilities get, even from teachers and professors, which is really sad. Personally, I’m a fighter, but I know we have a lot of students with disabilities, and many of them feel silenced or not good enough. Many people like me don’t even have the opportunity to go to college due to lack of resources for learning disabilities and accessibility issues. So I really fight for inclusion when it comes to accessibility.
I want everyone to feel like they belong. I didn’t always feel like I had a place or someone to lean on at school, so I created and found a sense of community, but I want to give everyone the possibility of doing the same. So accessibility is really important to me because I know what it’s like to be discriminated against and I know what it’s like to feel alone.
I really put a lot of emphasis on finding solutions and I think my business idea will help a lot of people. families in the educational environment. For example, I won a Gold Award for launching an adaptive and sensory game library. I’ve seen the cost difference between regular toys and adaptive toys, where adaptive toys cost three to six times the standard price due to a $3 wire. Many parents can’t afford it, but children have benefited so much from these toys. So I just want to give people more access to learning materials, make things more accessible, and I really want to spend my time on earth doing that.
Q: Your experience as a Girl Scout has really impacted how you take charge. It’s really about teaching young girls important life and community skills. Did this have an impact on you?
A: Yes, I attribute my advocacy, sense of service, and risk-taking to Girl Scouts. Living with a learning disability, for many people, is not only a learning challenge, but also a self-esteem challenge. Self-esteem is becoming a major issue, and Girl Scouts has really given me a way to foster a positive attitude and character. I got to try so many things in scouts. So even if you’re not good at one thing, they guide you in another direction. It really gave me some self-esteem. That’s why I’m a troop leader now. I want to give more girls the opportunity to be together and develop that self-esteem. I love being with them and they are so much fun.
Q: Given all the significant responsibilities you have already handled, tell us why you applied to the Lincoln Scholars Program? How did you come up with this idea and decide it was something you wanted to do?
A: I was always taught that we have a responsibility to leave the world a better place. I was so intrigued by the Lincoln Scholars program because what better way to make the world a better place place rather than meeting and working with students from diverse backgrounds, varied interests, varied specializations and, of course, different mindsets. It’s going to be great to talk and work with them to find real-world solutions to these huge problems and, of course, it opens up lots of opportunities for creative collaboration. I’m super excited.
Q: You’ve touched on this topic before, but could you talk a little more about what you hope to achieve in the next year as a Lincoln Scholar?
A: Yes of course. I look forward to working with other students on these real-world problems and solutions. I like to see how people think about things and how they plan. Taking into account these different points of view and ways of thinking is very important when looking for solutions and trying to find a different angle. I also really think this will give my business a boost, so I can actually start working on accessibility.
Having a lot of other students around me with a common interest in just trying to make this world a better place really helps. I read about Lincoln Scholars and I see students who are very smart, motivated, smart, and all just want to make a difference. I think it’s so beautiful and amazing.
I’m excited to meet other people in my ASU community that I wouldn’t have met otherwise, since I’m a They are commerce graduates and some of them are engineers, others are medical students. There are many opportunities for expansion.
Above all, I look forward to participating in the discussion on ethics. This allows me to become aware of my personal biases and strengthen my ethical decision-making, but also to see how others experience life and what they experience on a daily basis, because I think this has a very important impact on the how we interact with everyone.
Q: The last two years have been difficult for everyone, especially activists and people looking to make a difference. Has this affected you as well and the way you approach these situations?
A: That’s done. I was a COVID-19 graduate in 2020, when all graduations were canceled, and I remember it was really difficult. The first year at ASU was very stressful, as I had to adjust online. I am truly heartbroken for the professors at ASU because not only was it stressful on that side, but I can’t imagine being on the other side and trying to figure out how to place people in Zoom rooms and all that.
It was lonely my first year at ASU and I didn’t feel like I had anyone around me. My parents pushed me to get involved again in helping others, to expose myself and find different avenues of connection. I continued with Girl Scouts and we did Zoom events. We talked a lot – now the girls love talking on Zoom and they earned a badge for it. Even just crafting alone but together via Zoom was so important. It probably didn’t seem like it at the time, but it was important to me to continue helping people, even just bringing supplies to health care workers – our troop made them 200 bags, so it was definitely awesome.
This was also the year I decided I needed to get involved at ASU. I studied Greek life and felt like it wasn’t for me, but I got involved with the WP Carey Dean advisory board, and that’s what made me want to work again on projects and see what others think.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve learned a lot about flexibility and thinking, “Okay, if not.” I’m going to work, how am I going to find a different angle? How are we going to solve this problem? »
Q: Thank you so much for sharing your inspiring story with us today. Is there anything you would like to say in conclusion?
A: I’m just excited to continue to make a difference, not only in my ASU community, but in the entire community. I am very excited to be surrounded by students who have different perspectives and to see how they think and what they are really passionate about. I really hope to make a big push at WP Carey towards accessibility and use the Lincoln Scholars program to promote more accessibility within ASU as a whole and hopefully give a little boost to my business. I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity and I’m super excited.
