Hometown: Bronx, NY
Graduation Year: 2012
Major: International Relations
Involvement at Wheaton:
My first two years at Wheaton, I threw discus and hammer for the Track and Field team. I’ve also been involved with Gospel Choir (sophomore through senior years), the William Osborne Society (I served on cabinet sophomore and junior years as the Business Manager and President, respectively), and I am a 1-2-1 Leader my senior year. The summer before my senior year, I also went on the Iron Sharpens Iron trip which is a Business/International Relations/Political Science trip that these departments sponsor every summer. This year, we went to South America, which was absolutely incredible! We spent a month studying on campus, then a month in South America just learning about the culture, the politics, and the economy of the countries and getting to know great Wheaton students and faculty in the process.
I’d say my involvement with the BRIDGE program has been one of the things that has had the biggest impact on me and my time at Wheaton. The feeling of serving these high school students and making a tangible difference in their academic, social, and spiritual lives, both for the month I lived with them and after, was a feeling matched only by the profound impact the students and staff had on my life.
Other random Wheaton stuff I’ve done was the Mr. Wheaton fundraiser my freshman year (I think there are some Youtube clips still floating around out there) and acted in the class film my freshman year as the title character! I was also a Big Sib my sophomore year with Lauren Schaeffer, which was a blast.
Why Wheaton? For one thing, Wheaton impressed me as the school that cared most about me as a person. I met with Dr. Rich Powers, who was at the time the Dean of Students, and he assured me that Wheaton's faculty members cared about the students in their class to the point where if a student were struggling in a class, they would seek out the student and proactively offer assistance. The biggest indicator that Wheaton cared about me as a person was the Don and Ann Church Scholarship, which is a scholarship that at the time offered full tuition, room, and board, to a few incoming African-American students a year. The fact that Wheaton, whose endowment was at the time a bit over $300M, was offering me a full scholarship and the other schools I was considering attending had endowments of over $1B but would not offer the $10,000 more in financial aid I needed to be able to attend really struck me and proved that Wheaton was really a place that would be dedicated to my growth as a person. I also knew, as I assume that anyone applying to Wheaton does, that it was a very good school academically. Most importantly, I realized that Wheaton was the place that would be most beneficial to my growth in my Christian faith through its broad base of faculty, staff, and students who were all serious about living out their faith in a meaningful way in the real world. In short, Wheaton was the school that offered the best combination of nurturing yet challenging me in order to make me a better person.
Why your major? I ended up as an International Relations major because I realized it was the best way to combine a lot of the diverse interests I hold (and the diverse credits I had as a result!). I had a good deal of business and foreign language credits, and an IR major was the best way to continue studying both at a deeper level.
Favorite class and what you liked about it: My favorite classes outside of my major were Dr. Henry Kim's Intro to Sociology class and Dr. Chris Vlachos' New Testament class. Both classes were characterized by the teacher's passion for the subject they were teaching, and for the students in the class. Dr. Kim's compassion for those who are less privileged in life, along with his sense of humor, made his class an unforgettable experience, one that has shaped my life. Dr. Vlachos' knowledge of the Bible and experience as a pastor make his class absolutely riveting and applicable—as do his incredible stories!
Favorite place on campus: My favorite place on campus is probably the Beamer Center. Between the Stupe, Sam’s, and the game room, you’re bound to run into someone you know, whether it be a close friend or that someone you’ve been meaning to catch up with for a while but haven’t gotten to yet. I love to eat, and the Stupe is the eatery that closes the latest on campus so you can probably catch me there a few evenings a week. The big screen in the game room is also perfect for watching big NFL, NBA, and MLB games on (and other sports too, don’t worry). The Beamer Center is the perfect central location to come and relax, catch up with friends, grab a bite to eat, or even do some homework in one of the side rooms if you want a place to focus that’s not as quiet as the library.
Free time activities:
I love to read in my leisure time, though I usually end up doing that more at home than at Wheaton. I love playing sports and exercising, especially intramural flag football and basketball, as well as lifting weights. I also love getting together to “do music” with my friends, be it recording hip-hop on one of our mics, going to Gospel Choir rehearsal, or just enjoy a Stupe Coffeehouse thrown by one of my fellow Wheaton students. The main thing I like to do is just connect with my friends and have fun with them! One great thing to do is get a group together and head to Naperville, an awesome town about 20 minutes away, or go even further to Chicago and enjoy one of the greatest cities in the world.
I wish I had known the ridiculous extent to which people at Wheaton are so incredibly talented and great. Wheaton’s an imperfect place made up of imperfect people, but the people of Wheaton are one of the greatest resources God has ever given me, and the friendships built here are friendships that will last for life. The students and faculty have a wealth of gifts and talents; get to know people, random people, and just be blessed by their intelligence, their abilities, and their unbelievable caring and just plain niceness. Get to know the staff also! The people who work to keep Wheaton running are great at what they do, but are also great at other things and are really genuine and caring people. My sophomore year, I got to know a great guy who worked at Public Safety, and we’re still in touch to this day. As another example, my roommate worked at Physical Plant [Facilities Management], so I got to know a lot of the guys there. They’re absolutely awesome! Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we met up at noon to play basketball during their break, and those times were easily the highlights of my week.
Wheaton in three words: Greatest community ever.
Most memorable experience at Wheaton: One of my most memorable Wheaton-related experiences occurred during Gospel Choir Spring Break Tour ’10. We were at Pepperdine University in California and we were having a picnic on a bluff that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. I organized a game of “Flamingo Football,” which is guys versus girls tackle football with the guys hopping on one foot (don’t worry, this was organized by me, not Wheaton employees :) ). It was way harder for the guys than we thought it’d be, and way harder for the girls than they thought it would be! We had so much fun that day; we played for at least two hours with the game ending in a tie. When it was done, we all just sprawled out on the grass exhausted, laughing uncontrollably recapping the highlights of the game. The game was such a hit we’ve turned it into a Gospel Choir tradition! Although the game technically didn’t happen at Wheaton, that game along with the socializing and bonding that occurred due to it is my most memorable Wheaton experience.
Favorite campus event: I love “Student Celebrity Chef Night” at Anderson Commons. Every now and then, Bon Appetit puts a panel of students in charge of the menu for a dinner, and it’s always so fun. I usually know the students, so it’s fun to talk to them while they’re behind the counter in their official chef uniform and tease them. On top of that, that night the food is always even better than usual! It’s a fun time for everyone involved; I hope they have it a lot this upcoming school year!
Favorite Wheatonism: “Legit” and/or “Totes.” Wheaton students love to abbreviate things, and you’ll hear these abbreviations for “legitimate(ly)” and “totally” thrown around all the time on campus. While the usage of the word “legit” has become widely accepted as, well, legit, “totes” is still one that I reserve the right to laugh in your face should I hear you use it in a serious manner.
What person at Wheaton has had the greatest impact on you and why? Rodney Sisco, director of the Office of Multicultural Development, has probably had the biggest impact on me if I had to narrow it down to one person. Along with Eva Ortiz, the assistant director, Rodney has provided godly leadership to me throughout my [time] at Wheaton – as well as a constant source of friendship! I’ve really been blessed by his wisdom and his presence as a father figure on campus to not just myself, but a lot of the students. At 6’4”, there are not a lot of men that I can physically and literally look up to, but Rodney is one of them!
About me: I was born and raised in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. My mother was a teacher for many years, and my father is the Executive Director of an organization that provides healthcare to NYC’s homeless population. I have two younger brothers, Timothy, who’s 18, and Stephen, who’s 15. My whole family is very close, so it was definitely a new experience to leave home for Wheaton College, which was by far the farthest school to which I applied. Since arriving at Wheaton, however, I’ve gotten to really appreciate a lot of the things I never experienced growing up, such as clerks at stores engaging me in full conversations about college and life in general. While I definitely don’t know in what specific direction the Lord is leading me in terms of post-Wheaton life, He has been confirming that I have strong passions for urban missions, music, and working with youth, especially males and “at-risk” youth.
Bonus fact: I’ve got a lot of random sides to me and random interests—I used to play classical piano for 7 years, but I love to rap, I am equally content to play basketball for a full day, or to read John Grisham novels on the couch all day…but probably one of the most surprising and random things about me is that I was a huge—and I mean HUGE—Star Wars fan/nerd in elementary school. I knew every obscure character and fact about Star Wars, and I could even speak a smattering of some of those alien languages. I’ve still got a special place in my heart for Star Wars; every now and then, when SPIKE does those Star Wars marathons it occasionally televises, I’ll disappear into my room for any number of hours and be by myself in a galaxy far, far away…