From Eswatini to San Diego: There’s More Behind the Story of USD’s 'Instagram Girl'

"Are you the Instagram girl?" 

It’s the question that has become the most common greeting 22-year-old Donatella Falcomer receives on campus. For the past two years, her face has been synonymous with the University of San Diego’s (USD) social media presence, appearing in videos that have collectively reached hundreds of thousands of prospective students and beyond.

But behind the Instagram posts and TikTok videos lies a story of remarkable resilience—a journey that took Falcomer from gymnastics in Eswatini to becoming one of USD's most recognizable students.

A Golden Girl With a Packed Bag

Growing up in Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, Falcomer's life revolved around athletics. By age three, she was already tumbling in gymnastics clubs. By 16, she had earned a spot on Eswatini's national gymnastics team, joining an elite group of athletes who represented their small African nation on the international stage.

"I was like a golden girl in high school," Falcomer recalls. "I had all the good grades, was captain of multiple sports teams, participated in debate and public speaking." 

Yet despite her achievements, home life remained complex. Her parents separated when she was young. Raised by her single father alongside her older brother, Falcomer learned early to pack light—literally.

"Home for me was in a bag," she explains. "I would have my bag packed and sometimes I wouldn’t unpack it because each day I didn't really know which home I was going to." She split time between her father's house and her godparents' home, developing a nomadic existence that would, ironically, prepare her for the biggest move of her life.

The constant movement wasn't born of instability but rather protection. Her father, whom she describes as a "super girl dad," wanted to shield her from the difficulties that come with divorce. This early experience of adapting to different environments, she believes, laid the foundation for her later ability to relocate to the United States.

The Athletic Foundation

In Eswatini, sports weren't just extracurricular—they were a way of life. Falcomer excelled at netball, rounders (a bat and ball sport similar to baseball), track and field, swimming, and ultimately, gymnastics. What set gymnastics apart wasn't just her natural ability, but her mental game.

“All it [gymnastics] is, is convincing your body that you're able to flip," she explains. "When you tell your mind, 'I'm going to flip and actually land it,' that's what sets apart good from great." Her first coach, who also taught at her high school, recognized something special. "She told me, 'If you trust me, I can turn you into a really good gymnast.' As a young girl hearing something like that, it was like, 'Whoa. I can be someone.'"

The mental toughness required for gymnastics—the ability to literally throw oneself through the air and trust in the landing—would prove invaluable when life threw Falcomer her biggest challenge yet. National team gymnastics meant rigorous training schedules, international competitions, including in neighboring South Africa, and a responsibility that prohibited participation in any other sports. It also meant constantly traveling and living with the added pressure of representing her entire nation.

Dreams Derailed, New Paths Emerged

In August 2021, Falcomer arrived in Los Angeles with the hopes to compete as a UCLA gymnast and chase her American dream. She moved in with her godparents, who had relocated to California several years prior. For someone who had spent her life adapting to new environments, this felt like just another transition—until everything changed.

Within weeks of arriving, Falcomer was diagnosed with a blood disease that would prevent her from ever stepping foot on the mat at UCLA. Different doctors delivered the same devastating verdict: no gymnastics, no running, no sports—potentially for years. For someone whose entire identity and reason for coming to America centered on gymnastics, the diagnosis was crushing.

"Someone like me, whose whole reason for moving to the U.S. was to be an athlete, and I'm being told you can stay in the U.S., but you can't be an athlete—it was like, 'Oh my gosh, now what?'"

The challenges compounded when she discovered that her high school diploma from Eswatini wasn't equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma, making her ineligible for four-year universities without a sports scholarship. Facing the possibility of returning home, Falcomer instead enrolled at Moorpark College, a community college in Ventura County in Southern California.

Finding Purpose in the Unexpected

The two years at Moorpark represented Falcomer's first experience with "normal" life— no 5 a.m. practices, no international competitions, just classes and homework. For someone who had never known stillness, the adjustment was jarring.

"My life was never normal. This was the first time I had that normal life of 'wake up, pack my bag, eat breakfast, go to school, come home, do homework.' That was never my life. So it was an adjustment."

During this period, she found friendship with another student who would become instrumental in her next chapter. When it came time to transfer to a four-year university, Falcomer took a tour of USD with this friend. Originally set on the University of Miami, until a visa processing error derailed those plans, her heart was instantly captured by the beauty of USD.

"When I saw USD, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is so unexpected,'" she remembers. The move to USD felt right — staying in California meant remaining close to her godparents and best friend, who would attend UCSD, while pursuing her dreams at a school that immediately felt like home.

Becoming USD's Face

Transferring to USD as a junior, Falcomer faced the challenge of making a new campus feel like home. Her solution was to dive headfirst into campus life and find a job in social media marketing on campus.

She reached out to the University Marketing and Communications team seeking an opportunity to support USD’s social media pages. She became the first-ever social media intern, creating content for the university's main Instagram and TikTok accounts. What started as creating content, highlighting student life on campus, quickly evolved into her becoming "the USD Instagram girl," a title that brings both recognition and responsibility.

"When people know that you, as an individual, are behind an institution, it opens doors," she explains. The experience working on USD’s Instagram and TikTok platforms has proven invaluable for job interviews and career prospects, exactly as her father advised: "If you're going to work, let it be in your career."

Faith, Growth, and New Beginnings

Perhaps the most significant transformation during Falcomer's time at USD has been her journey of faith. She wasn’t raised deeply religious, but found herself curious about the active Christian community around her. What began as simple curiosity evolved into a deeply personal relationship with her faith.

"I never really had a sense of purpose and truth. I was always just living life—good things were happening, but I didn't really know who to owe it to," she reflects. "When you have a relationship with the Lord, it's like walking hand in hand with Jesus every day. I literally feel like I have a mentor, a supervisor, someone to turn to that I've never really had before."

Entrepreneurial Spirit

True to her go-getter nature, Falcomer maintained a jam-packed schedule throughout her senior year. Alongside her partner, Elijah, she launched SafeBallot, a company that began as an entry for the Fowler Business Concept Challenge but has turned into a legitimate business venture. The company is a digital platform protected by blockchain technology with the hope of modernizing voting.

"We've had so much progress and been connected with so many helpful people in just four months," she says. "The Lord has just opened so many doors." She'll compete in the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge Global Finals in Minneapolis, Minn. at the end of May, representing USD among numerous other teams from universities across the globe. 

Full Circle

As Falcomer prepares to graduate from the Knauss School of Business with a degree in marketing this month, her next chapter is already taking shape. She's landed a position in sports marketing with the San Diego Legion, San Diego's Major League Rugby team — a career path that combines her love of sports with her passion for marketing and social media.

Falcomer has found stability over the past few years. Her journey from elite gymnastics in Eswatini to USD illustrates not just her personal resilience, but the power of embracing unexpected opportunities.
"I think growing up, I was the one who had to grow up a lot faster than people around me," she reflects. "When you take that sense of resilience, you carry it with you throughout your whole life."

Today, Donatella Falcomer's bag might still be packed—but now it's filled with ambition, faith and the confidence that comes from turning life's curveballs into launching pads. 

As students across the USD campus continue to ask, "Are you the Instagram girl?" Falcomer's answer encompasses so much more than social media. She's the international student who thrived, the entrepreneur who innovated, the athlete who found new arenas to conquer and the young woman who proved that with enough resilience and faith, any place can become home.

— Kelsey Grey ’15 (BA)