Student traveling to Quidditch World Cup

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Isabella Gong

Fourth-year student Alyssa Giarrosso will be competing in the International Quidditch Association World Cup again this year. Last year, she played in the World Cup in Kissimmee, Fla.

Alyssa Giarrosso is a fourth-year environmental sustainability, health and safety student. She will be traveling with the RIT Quidditch Team to North Myrtle Beach, S.C., this weekend to compete in the International Quidditch Association World Cup. This will be the third time the RIT team will be participating in the competition. Giarrosso is both a player and an eboard member on the Quidditch team and is also involved in Humans vs. Zombies on campus.

Question: Where are you from?
Answer: I am from Chittenango, N.Y.

Q: What brought you to RIT?
A: I came to RIT for the co-op program and the quarter system. I was also originally a mechanical engineering major and had heard RIT had a really good program for that.

Q: Why did you decide to study environmental sustainability, health and safety?
A: When I came to RIT, I realized I didn’t like physics as much as I thought I did, so I decided to pursue a degree that was more focused on the environment and still offered co-ops.

Q: What have been some of your favorite memories from your time at RIT?
A: Playing Humans vs. Zombies has always been one of my fondest on-campus memories because you get to interact with so many people you wouldn’t normally. However, off-campus I’ve had so much fun traveling with the Quidditch team. There’s something about spending hours in a car with people that really solidifies bonds.

Q: How did you get involved with Quidditch?
A: I got involved with Quidditch because a fellow running club member needed more people to play on his intramural Quidditch team. I fell in love with the sport and joined the club team.

Q: How would you describe Quidditch?
A: Quidditch is modeled after the sport from the Harry Potter series. It can be described as a full contact co-ed sport that appears to contain elements of handball, dodgeball and modified tag.

Q: What is your role on the team?
A: When I’m on the field, I’m a chaser, which means I score goals on the offense and play defense when the other team has possession of the quaffle, which is the type of ball we use. On the eboard, I am the treasurer for the club. Recently that has meant doing a lot of planning for the IQA World Cup.

Q: What is the World Cup that you are going to?
A: The IQA World Cup is the largest tournament of the year for any Quidditch team. To qualify, teams from around the world must do well enough at their regional tournament to receive a bid. The RIT Quidditch team placed third at the Northeast Regionals this year, which safely secured us a bid. The competition is in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., on April 5 and 6. There are 80 teams that have qualified from the various regions.

Q: What are you most looking forward to about the competition?
A: I’m really excited to get to play different teams than the ones we normally play. Also, we have a strong team this year that has a good chance of doing well, which is pretty exciting. Plus it’ll be nice to go somewhere warmer than Rochester!

Q: What are your plans for after graduation?
A: After graduation I’m hoping to be an environmental, health and safety manager at a company somewhere in Western New York.