Amarachi Nasa-Okolie

Chair for Social Activities

School of Arts and Sciences

Amarachi is a second-year Masters' student of the Behavioral and Decision Sciences program housed in the School of Arts and Sciences. She investigates through practical research, ways to help people move from maladaptive behaviors to adaptive ones, specifically, within education and health systems. How to make these systems run more efficiently and effectively by helping key stakeholders engage in optimal behaviors. She holds a B.Arts in Business Economics, with a minor in Communications from Concordia College, Moorhead. She has a particular interest in the developing economies of Sub-Saharan African countries, especially in her home country, Nigeria.

Coming to the University of Pennsylvania, she has been blessed with a community of like-minded individuals who challenge, empower and support each other with love. With this gift of family, she supported the previous social chair for grand events such as the West African Jollof Wars, the Yacht party also, for minor events such as happy hours. Additionally, she served on the BGAPSA board 2018-2019 session, where she served as the Operations Chair and supported the planning and coordination of events for the Black Graduate students.

She will be translating her love for community and making people feel welcomed and valued into social events. Each event will be purposefully planned to create a communal and relaxing atmosphere. When she is not being a GA at Stouffer College Hall, or volunteering as an evaluation researcher at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships or volunteering her time to the Catholic church, she can be found reading works of Chimamanda Adichie, Joseph Wodo, Danielle Steel or Roxanne Gay. She loves to watch movies about drama, romance or documentaries.

Fun Fact: She loves avocados. (It is almost an obsession at this point).

If you have ideas or suggestions you would like to share about GAPSA, please do not hesitate to contact Amarachi at gapsa.sa@gmail.com.