HWS News
7 October 2025 • Research How Gorczynski '26 Found Her Place at HWS
Three years after nearly bailing at Orientation, Emily Gorczynski ’26 is president of HWS Student Government, a biochemistry researcher and future UNC pharmacy doctoral student.
Three short years ago, Emily Gorczynski ’26 stood on Stern Lawn feeling overwhelmed—new place, new people, new routines. With intense first-year jitters, she even threatened to call an Uber home before Orientation ended. Fast forward to this fall, Gorczynski returned to Stern Lawn in a much different role: addressing hundreds of incoming students as president of the Hobart and William Smith Student Government.
It’s safe to say she changed her mind.
First elected in fall 2023 and serving her first term in 2024, Gorczynski describes her time on student government as a defining part of her undergraduate experience. “HWS Student Government has opened so many doors for me. I wanted to be an advocate for students across campus and make a lasting impact on the HWS campus, and that’s exactly what I am able to do in this position,” Gorczynski says.
Beyond student leadership, she immersed herself fully in academic and co-curricular opportunities. The summer after her first year, the biochemistry major stayed on campus to conduct research with Professor of Chemistry Justin Miller, exploring Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis. She credits Professor Miller’s mentorship and research as pivotal in shaping her undergraduate experience and graduate school applications.
Next fall, Gorczynski will begin her doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy—the top-ranked pharmacy school in the U.S. and fifth-ranked globally. She has also pushed herself beyond the sciences, studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she focused on art history. “It was significantly out of my comfort zone,” she says, “but ended up being a trip of a lifetime.”
Gorczynski’s record of campus leadership is equally impressive. She has served as an orientation mentor for the Classes of 2027 and 2028, a student representative on the Committee on First-Year Academic Experience, and as student government president she serves as student representative to the Alumni Association where she joins her mother, Dr. Melissa Fasolo Gorczynski ’98 and aunt, Lisa Fasolo Frishman ’99.
“Having a familial connection with HWS is something near and dear to my heart,” she says.
“The idea that I will carry with me is this,” she adds. “HWS’ values of living a life of consequence and holistically preparing students for the future have allowed me, as a biochemistry student, to get involved in so much outside of the sciences—and to become HWS Student Body President.”
As she looks ahead to her final year, Gorczynski feels proud of all she has accomplished—and excited for what’s still to come. Most of all, she is thankful for all that HWS has offered, and that, despite her anxieties, she never called for that Uber ride home.
Top: Emily Gorczynski ’26 delivers the student address at Convocation.
