Breaking barriers, but not only
Sophia Giacchi says it with a smile: “Please! Remember I don’t want to come across as the girl in the wheelchair. I’d rather we talk about everything I’ve done to change a system that often makes even the simplest things impossible for people with disabilities.”
As she recounts, she’s someone who has moved heaven and earth just to gain an inch more of autonomy every day. Born in Gela, Sicily, in 1998, she takes a pragmatic approach to disability: it’s not just architectural barriers, but real, systemic discrimination against minorities. “My parents didn’t want me to move away after high school; they would have preferred me to study in Gela. That wasn’t an option for me, in Gela I felt hemmed in. So I made them a counter offer: I wanted to go to Milan, to Bocconi, and live on my own.” Thanks to her “reckless courage,” she moved with her parents, and enrolled at CLEACC [Economics and Management for Arts, Culture and Communication]. Easier said than done.
After waging bureaucratic battles, getting rules rewritten at the university to allow people with disabilities to attend classes, Giacchi embarked on a journey replete with stimulating experiences, encounters and opportunities. “The years at Bocconi were fantastic! I took part in so many extra-curricular projects, and I was an active member of lots of associations, such as Radio Bocconi. I was also politically active at the university, holding positions in student government for three years,” she adds.
During her postgraduate studies, she made the “crazy” decision to go to Barcelona, where she also studied Spanish. “I wanted to push the boundaries again, or maybe find out what they were. There was a lot of anxiety around this choice, also because everyone could see the objective difficulties of living alone. There were economic reasons as well as organizational ones. I never lacked the strength to find a solution to all the problems I encountered: I managed to obtain European financial support for equal opportunities and to organize an ‘independent’ life. I had two people working for me and I had to report my expenses every month, being careful to stick to my budget!”
All this on top of her studies and a very active social life, she says, which made it a really exhilarating challenge. “The experience has made me more aware of the limitations I objectively have to face,” she says. But that doesn’t stop her. Today, after an internship at Accenture, Giacchi works for L’Oréal. Here she has held various positions; today she’s a product manager for SkinCeuticals. “I am a competitive person who likes to do a good job; and I’ve also achieved another goal: to buy a house and live on my own,” she adds.
On the subject of disability, she says that what motivates her is that she has made a difference, helped to create a world of opportunities for the people who will come after her. “The other day I got a letter from an 18-year-old girl who wanted to enroll at Bocconi but was afraid of the architectural barriers. I encouraged her and tried to convey my approach to life: never accept ‘that’s just the way it is.’ Something to double down on when rules are unfair or poorly written: you have a duty, not just a right, to break them to initiate change. To start a revolution, small or large, you need the courage to overcome prejudices and to make others do the same.” Starting with the mental cages “we build for ourselves.”
