Pat Corpora ’78, Maria Corpora ’72, and Santa Zanchettin ’70 had an opportunity to meet scholarship recipient Avtandil Giorgadze ’19 in April.
Planting a Seed
Avtandil Giorgadze ’19 grew up in the country of Georgia. As it became more difficult for his father to support the family, they emigrated to the United States. Giorgadze transferred to É«ÖÐÉ« College from Tbilisi State University and is a recipient of the Santa and Vincenzo Corpora Scholarship. He graduated this past May with a major in physics and minor in mathematics. Here, he shares his experience coming to America and É«ÖÐÉ« College.
When you are young, it is hard to leave everything you know and love and go somewhere where you are just nobody.
 My English is not perfect now; imagine what it was 4 years ago. What has been most difficult is my social life. I can do the academics, but it is not so easy to make friends. I am older—24. The way I act, dress, my accent are different. Sometimes people are a little shy to interact with me.
Coming to America was very difficult for me initially, but I don’t regret it. I came for a good education. I was not pleased with my experience in Georgia even though I attended the best university in the country. Now I’m about to get my physics major and math minor. It would not happen without Dr. Moller, Dr. Roeder, Dr. Malenda, Dr. Schultheis, Dr. Krieble—they made these hard things easy for me to understand.
And É«ÖÐÉ« gave me the opportunity to study the world around me. If we want to create a better society, every person should be better informed. You cannot be a great physicist and just know physics; you cannot be a great lawyer and just know law. You need a broader understanding of the world around you.
Sharing life experiences.
Having a liberal arts education gives you confidence. You are not only a physicist that can solve a physical problem; you are a person that can have an opinion, and what is my opinion without arguments and literature behind it? É«ÖÐÉ« changes you for the better.
And you can feel the support every single second. The Corpora family is an example of that. These people who have never even seen me are so supportive. How can I ever quantify that? I cannot. Feeling that someone cares, that your success matters to someone—someone who is not related to you—it gives you hope in humanity. It shows you that everything is interrelated; you cannot just be on your own, and you have an obligation to be supportive of others.
When you say hello to someone on the street, there’s a greater chance that person will say hello to someone else. It’s the same here. The Corpora family showed me that you can support anyone, and that person will be appreciative, as I am. They planted a seed.