About Me

Cara Travaglini

Hi! My name is Cara Travaglini and I am currently a Senior here at Virginia Tech. I grew up in a pretty small town in New Jersey called Bedminster and I come from a family of 5- my mom, dad, and two older brothers. Everything I am is because of them. Obviously many people can cite their parents as their biggest influences, but my brothers are 10 and 7 years older than me and they’ve played a huge part in shaping the person I am today. From a young age, my Dad really encouraged me to explore my creative talents- like painting, drawing, and singing. I’ve always known that when I “grow up,” any job that I have would have to be something where I could be creative everyday. I could never just sit at a desk and crunch numbers for the rest of my life. Most of high school I defined myself by the sports I played, but when college applications rolled around I knew I needed to find a creative major that could really interest me. That lead me to Fashion Merchandising and Design and Virginia Tech!

In High School, I always knew that I wanted to be a leader- but was never brave enough to step out of my comfort zone. The fear of rejection was always greater for me. When I got to VT, though, and joined my sorority- Zeta Tau Alpha- everything changed. I met my “big sister” who became like a mentor to me and pushed me to go after my goals. From there, I’ve done a lot in Greek Life from being a Rho Gamma ( put simply: a recruitment guide/leader for 40+ girls through the process of rush) to being on Zeta’s own executive council as Historian/PR. The best leadership experience I’ve had at Tech, though, has been being on the Class of 2020 Leadership Team. The Ring tradition at VT is one of the very first things that made me see that VT is Home. I thought it was so cool, that every year the ring gets redesigned by the students for the students. So when I heard about L-Team, I knew I had to be a Ring Design committee member. It was a long process, but it gave me some of my closest friends at school and opened me up to so much more. It’s what made me realize that I love being a leader and that learning about leadership excites me, maybe even more than fashion.

With graduation coming up in May, I’m still not totally sure what I’d like to do with my life. I’m definitely going to pursue fashion first and see where that leads me- but for now, I’m not sure what that will look like. I know that I’d love to be out in the Pacific North West (all of the photos I’ve included on my website are from my summer trip to Oregon), but NYC has always been a long time dream of mine, too. Mostly, I’m just trying to figure out what I’ll be doing this time next year.