Paying passion forward

By Brianna Miron ’26

Gia Mazza ’26 | Photo by JaQuan Alston

As she approaches the end of her time at Lafayette College, Gia Mazza ’26 will leave knowing she left no stone unturned and no challenge unmet. More importantly, she has spent the past four years encouraging others to do the same. 

This is an attitude Mazza picked up from her friends and peers at Lafayette. “Everyone around you is just so passionate about what they do,” she says, “and they’re all so involved that I also wanted to be really involved.” She found no shortage of opportunities on campus to invest her own energy, though some of them came about in unexpected ways. 

When Mazza stumbled upon a post on the College’s website advertising Recreation Services’ personal trainer certification course, she was reminded of the impact exercise had on her life. “It’s always been important to me, and I’ve played sports my whole life,” she says. When COVID-19 shutdowns forced her to take a hiatus from sports in high school, Mazza turned to virtual Peloton workout classes as an outlet. It was during this period that she first began to wonder about the possibility of motivating and inspiring individuals to get the same joy out of exercise she did. 

After completing training and receiving her national certification through the College’s American Council on Exercise (ACE) Personal Training Course, Mazza became Lafayette Recreation Services’ first student personal trainer. In her role, she is responsible for curating and guiding students through individualized workout plans based on their fitness goals. 

“Gia is our first student to successfully go through the ACE Personal Training Course and become a personal trainer at Recreation Services,” says Tyler Weiss, Mazza’s supervisor and associate director of group fitness and individual fitness. “Throughout her time as a trainer, she has helped a number of students improve their exercise routines and now acts as a mentor to future trainers who are going through the course just like she did.” 

The experience, Mazza says, has exceeded her expectations. “It’s really been a lot more rewarding than I even thought it was going to be. You could get someone that has never worked out before as your client, and by the end of the workout, maybe they’re using a machine correctly, or they just feel more confident walking in the gym. You can see when someone feels more confident, and it’s so exciting for me.” 

Mazza’s commitment to supporting others and building their confidence doesn’t stop at Recreation Services. For the past two years, she has served as the president of Women in Computing (WinC), a campus organization dedicated to creating a supportive environment for women and nonbinary individuals in computing. 

While Mazza has excelled in her coursework for her dual degree in computer science and mathematics, and will be heading into a role in software engineering after graduation, this was not a path she was always certain of. She credits the community she found as an underclassman in WinC with providing reassurance, assistance, and friendship to help her stay committed to her major. “If I didn’t have that club freshman year, I probably wouldn’t be a computer science major anymore,” Mazza says. 

In addition to her work with Recreation Services, Mazza is completing a dual degree in computer science and mathematics. | Photo by JaQuan Alston

As president, she has continued to foster that same sense of community for younger students still finding their footing within the major. “There’s a group coming up now that just got elected to the board and are really excited about it. This is how I felt, and, I think, how the people ahead of me felt. So we’re keeping people passionate and excited.”

WinC’s faculty adviser, Jia Tao, associate professor of computer science, has seen this impact firsthand. “Gia has a remarkable ability to bring people together, and she carries a strong sense of responsibility in everything she does as president of WinC. Through her leadership, she has helped create a welcoming and supportive community. I have truly appreciated seeing how her dedication and thoughtfulness have strengthened WinC and contributed positively to our department.”

In addition to motivating students at Recreation Services and through WinC, Mazza has served as vice president of Lafayette’s chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery, acted on the board of Marquis Scholars and Fellows, works as a teaching assistant, and is an active member of Alpha Phi. She also has pushed herself to explore by participating in Lafayette’s Rome and Peru interim trips and by taking on a dual degree. 

On top of completing her B.S. degree in computer science, she will be graduating with an A.B. degree in mathematics, a major she declared in her junior year. While she had always loved math, it was the classroom environment of her Vector Spaces course that pushed her to pursue this passion. “It was always my favorite subject growing up,” Mazza says, “but that class was a moment for me where I realized there are other people who like math as much as I do.” For her, the challenge of mathematical proofs is the appeal. “They’re hard, but in a good way. It’s kind of like working out.” 

This comparison speaks to the range in Mazza’s pursuits at Lafayette and the conviction she brings to each of them. Whether mentoring the next cohort of student personal trainers or through her efforts in the computer science and mathematics departments, Mazza demonstrates a consistent commitment to her own growth and to fostering that same progress in others. “I’m really not the same person I initially was when I stepped on campus for the first time,” she reflects, “but I think I’ve grown up so much, and I’m really proud of who I am now.”