Invasion of Privacy: Public Relations Manager Angela Totaro

Photo courtesy of Public Relations Manager, Angela Totaro

The Lamron will miss Angela greatly, along with her immaculate Instagram skill and hilarious TikTok video ideas.

Angela Totaro is a senior English literature and adolescent education major with a minor in mathematics. She plays on the women's club rugby team and has been the Public Relations Manager of The Lamron for the past three semesters.

Originally from Orchard Park, a Buffalo, NY suburb, Totaro's undergraduate journey has been marked by her openness to change and desire to find what best fits with her vision of the future. This began with her experience as a college freshman, attending the University at Albany (UAlbany), where she was an applied mathematics and computer science major. Though she had spent much of high school imagining herself as a “woman in STEM,” she found herself discontent with the school and her program. Totaro expressed, “As much as I do like math, I didn’t want it to be my whole life.” 

“I started with what I wanted my day-to-day to look like,” she reveals about her reassessment process as she began the difficult but fruitful journey of reimaging her future. Remembering fondly her high school teachers and clubs/sports she was a part of during grade school, her back-of-the-mind thought of ‘maybe I’ll be a teacher,’ came to the forefront. From there, she made the switch in both her school and major. Coming to SUNY Geneseo for its well-known education program and its closer distance to home felt natural, and the population decrease was also more than welcomed as “Albany was way too big of a school for me.”

Not only teaching, but teaching English as a “longtime reader,” was a concept that she easily found passion in. Totaro notes that in her “personal, biased opinion,” English is “the most applicable set of skills that you can get from high school… How are you going to engage in a society if you can’t understand what people are saying?” Praising English for its variety of both soft and hard skills that make it flexible, yet focused. 

As a transfer student, the most stressful elements were in the practical components. Still, even with that, she states, “Overall, [I’m] just very happy that I transferred,” acknowledging still that “I maybe don’t have as many friendships as someone who has been here for four years and has met so many more people.” The smaller and more close-knit setting of Geneseo, along with her involvement in clubs and organizations like women’s club rugby and The Lamron, helped her to settle in and find people and places that make her feel like she belongs. Here, she also gives a shout-out to Dr. Sam Fallon from the English department, so I will as well— shout out to Dr. Fallon! 

Looking towards the future, Totaro is looking to pursue teaching professionally, noting that student teaching this semester has been “really affirming to me that I made the right switch, in terms of school, in terms of major, [and] what I want to do with my life… I’m excited to have my own classroom.” She is also applying to graduate schools, looking to get her professional certification not only in English for grades seventh through twelfth, but also to get her certification in teaching Latin— which came as a pleasant, but surprising assertion to me. 

Totaro expresses that she has loved Latin since she started taking it in grade school, studying it for four years. Worrying that it would be hard to find a job as a Latin teacher, as it is a field with a low full-time job guarantee, she thought it better to pursue it as a secondary option to her main subject area. Totaro hopes to eventually be able to teach both subjects throughout her school day and engage in these related, yet separate, disciplines that she has such a strong drive towards.

To those at the beginning of their college journey, Totaro leaves them with the advice that, “It’s cliché to say, but that’s the reason it’s a cliché— is ‘cause it’s true —is that you ‘don’t know what you don’t know,’ and sometimes you just have to try it to realize that you don’t like it.” Ultimately, Totaro is content with the choices that she has made and the drastic changes she had to confront to end up where she is now, and though “mak[ing] the leap, and switch[ing]” can be hard, she has found that it’s worth it; “Now, I can see a future that I am very genuinely passionate and happy about, and I think that’s so much more important than just sticking with what you started with.”

I can say, on a personal level, that as someone who has become Totaro’s good friend over her time here, I am also quite happy she made the switch that she did. Knowing her has been such a pleasure thus far, and she brings such a kind and silly spirit to the world and to The Lamron. We feel very lucky to have had her amongst our ranks for the past three semesters and wish her luck as she marches onwards into graduate school, her professional life, and beyond!

To end this in her own words, Totaro says that what stands out to her most about her time at Geneseo is “a Letch breakfast” and the “drive from Buffalo to Geneseo,” which Totaro feels she could complete in her sleep.