Journey to the Hill

JOURNEY TO THE HILL

ALEJANDRO BAEZ ’21

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH MAJOR FROM LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

The morning after he hosted a get-together to appreciate a close friend, and before he starts a day of work both academic and service-oriented, I find some time in Alejandro Baez’s busy schedule to sit down and hear about his 2,500-mile journey from Las Vegas to the Hill.

From a young age, Alejandro knew he wanted— he needed—to leave Las Vegas and feel the jolt of something new that could inspire him to strive beyond his beginnings. First and foremost, he emphasizes how Nevada ranks among the very bottom in studies of US education and, as a person of color, he discusses the added pressures of escaping the cycle of poverty post-high school. Through his own experience, Alejandro discovered an ambition within him that would carry him across the country and to Tufts: “I want to help people who had to struggle like I did and do.”

With this sprouting passion, Alejandro independently looked for a way out of Nevada and soon discovered QuestBridge, a community among the first of many that would support him as he ventured farther from home. From there, he attended many fly-in programs to both gauge his interest and understand the flaws of each school. Among the many campus programs, the Voices of Tufts Diversity Experience caught his eye.

Again, communities color Alejandro’s journey to and on our Hill here in the Northeast, and in those short two days and one night, he found himself sprinting with new friends to catch the bus under the cool October rains of Boston. “It either never rains or it floods in Vegas,” Alejandro recalls, describing the smile he knew was plastered on his face as he ran, which I see once again as I watch him reminisce. Despite all the invitations and visits, he still felt the lingering fear, the resting doubt that “these are the big leagues.” These are America’s leading institutions—how could he fit in here?

Activated by this need to go to college, Alejandro attacked the application paperwork himself, but then, how do you decide where to go, where to apply? These questions weighed heavier on his mind as he is the first in his family to go to college. “I wanted to make my family proud, and I had no other safety nets like other students,” he confesses, explaining what lifted the dread: going with his gut, which itself was the scariest feeling in his life. Did it pay off? Did he make the right choice?

Alejandro made all the strides by himself in high school, relying mostly on his own drive within his Las Vegas community. His ambition for new communities to belong to culminated in his acceptance and enrollment at Tufts, a whole 2,500-mile journey across the US canvas. Then, he had a new hill to venture up: our Hill.

Since coming to Tufts, Alejandro has painted himself a masterpiece of communities. His first experiences with the Bridge to Liberal Arts Success at Tufts (BLAST) program ignited the work he is doing now in the FIRST Resource Center for first-generation college students. The experience of being a person of color at Tufts led to his new exploration of identity in the Latino Center. As a Tisch Scholar, he picked up a community health major and works with the local Somerville Health Alliance, addressing realworld issues he recalls from home. And perhaps most importantly, he doesn’t journey alone. The extended hands of faculty and professors broadened his view and his horizons, supporting that unilateral need to get to and succeed in college. Today, Alejandro climbs this Hill with others, with those he respects and who respect him, finally able to look around at all his communities and take in the colors—take in the beauty of being here at Tufts.

—HASAN KHAN ’22