Lyons Pride

Defying gravity, expectations

PHOTOS BY KEITH NORDSTROM

What a ride the spring season was for Wheaton athletics! After 366 days without competition, the games were back on for the Lyons.

The baseball team won both the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship and the NCAA New England Regional Championship en route to the program’s fourth College World Series appearance.

Meg Walker ’22 qualified for NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Nationals in the 100-meter dash, running a personal best of 12.07 seconds and finishing 14th in the country. At the NEWMAC Track and Field Championships, the Lyons won the men’s pole vault (Johnny Robbins ’21), women’s 400-meter dash (Alex Case ’22), as well as the women’s 4x400 relay.

Despite only being able to participate in one swim meet during the academic year, Wheaton swimming and diving still produced two AllAmerica honorees: Madeline Eller ’23 earned first-team honors in the 100 breaststroke, while Lydia DaCorte ’21 earned first-team honors in the 200 freestyle.

This level of national success during such a challenging time underscores the effort, resilience and determination put forth by all 400 of our student-athletes and their coaches. —Gavin Viano, director of athletics and recreation

Stephen Quigley ’22 (left) soars over opponent in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at the NCAA Division III College World Series.

Megan Simeone ’23 (left) and Madeline Eller ’23 (right) cheer on teammate. Hannah George ’23 (left) and Sophie Wilhelm ’23

Elijah Akindolie ’22 got to enjoy a full season of competition with men’s track and field.

TEMI BAJULAIYE / BABSON COLLEGE

Meg Walker ’22 ran a personal best at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. Softball was one of the first teams to return to the field of play in the spring.

The Lyons advanced to the NEWMAC men’s lacrosse semifinals.

Getting comfortable… with being uncomfortable

Michael Easter ’09 book lauds benefits of pushing one’s limits

By Laura Pedulli

Michael Easter ’09 wants you to get uncomfortable.

A journalist, writer and researcher, his book The Comfort Crisis (Penguin Random House, May 2021) asserts that too often we numb our lives. Modern conveniences like comfort food, smoking, alcohol, pills, smartphones and TV leave us feeling detached, depressed and removed from what makes us feel alive.

“A radical new body of evidence shows that people are at their best—physically stronger, mentally tougher and spiritually sounder—after experiencing the same discomforts our early ancestors were exposed to every day,” Easter wrote in his book. “Scientists are finding that certain discomforts protect us from physical and psychological problems like obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression and anxiety, and even more fundamental issues like feeling a lack of meaning and purpose.”

Easter does not want to return to times when finding food was a life-and-death proposition or a harrowing struggle for survival. But he believes that individuals can find meaning, connection and an understanding of their own strengths through physically and mentally demanding adventures in nature that he calls “misogis.”

Misogi is a Japanese word that refers to an act of ritual purification.

“More recently, the idea of misogi has been applied to ... epic challenges in nature to cleanse the elements of the modern world. ... They help their practitioners smash previous limits and deliver mindful, centering confidence and competence,” explained Easter in his book.

To illustrate the point, he chronicles

Michael Easter ’09 ventured deep into the Alaskan Arctic with two travelers for a demanding 33-day hunting expedition.

Photo by Sicmanta

his own misogi: a 33-day epic journey through the remote Alaskan Arctic backcountry to hunt caribou. Woven through his narrative is extensive research on evolutionary biology, natural and social sciences, and interviews with academics and spiritual leaders.

The Comfort Crisis already is receiving attention and accolades. Washington Post reviewer Tamar Haspel wrote that

“Reading [the book] made me want to be better, and a book simply can’t deliver more than that.” Comedian Joe Rogan featured Easter in a nearly three-hour interview on his popular podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” shortly after the book came out.

Easter’s ability to distill science for the layperson and connect and derive meaning and great knowledge from complex, interrelated ideas is fueling the success. And he credits his alma mater for harnessing this skill.

“My experiences at Wheaton greatly influenced how this book came together. Specifically, the ability to ‘think big’ and also find the common thread between seemingly disparate sources of information,” Easter said. A turning point at Wheaton Easter’s natural inclination to step outside of his comfort zone can be traced to his days leading up to Wheaton.

An outdoorsy youth who loved to rock climb, Easter chose Wheaton the oldfashioned way: through a conversation with the guidance counselor at his Utah high school. Together, they researched schools that offered small class sizes, a quintessential New England campus and a curriculum with a rich breadth of liberal arts courses. Wheaton provided the perfect fit.

The college’s curriculum that emphasized linking and making connections between disciplines made an impact on Easter.

He admits at first that he “didn’t want to have anything to do with science,” but a geology course that allowed him to study the field through multiple lenses ignited a lifetime interest.

A turning point occurred when he participated in a simulation in a course taught by Geoffrey Collins, professor of geology. For that project, the class partnered with students taking an international relations course taught by Professor of Political Science Darlene Boroviak. They took on the roles of both scientists and policymakers to examine factors impacting global natural resource management, including international treaties and climate change.

“I remember thinking ‘that was super

fun.’ We were forced to think about this idea that is important and impactful, that really affects people’s daily lives, from different disciplines,” Easter said. Collins, who served as Easter’s advisor, recalled Easter’s enthusiasm. Shortly after the simulation, he helped Easter design an independent major SICMANTA that honored Easter opted for freeze-dried backpacking meals and energy bars for nourishment. He his interest in estimated that he burned roughly 5,000 to 8,000 calories per day during the expedition. the connection between the social sciences and natural sciences. He graduated in 2009 with a degree in politics, economics and the science of natural resources. “He thrived on thinking how everything fits together and had a natural ability with science. He also served as my teaching assistant in geology and had a natural ability to help students out in the field,” Collins said. A course in environmental writing cultivated Easter’s interest in writing— and eventually compelled him to enroll in a master’s degree program in journalism at New York University. “I grew up being a total magazine and book junkie—reading Outside and Esquire magazines and both nonfiction and fiction. But I didn’t do much writing. I took that class and discovered that I really like to write,” he said. The path to Comfort Crisis Easter found quick success following graduate school. He landed a job as fitness editor at Men’s Health magazine, where he developed, reported, wrote and edited stories for the magazine’s print edition and website. “This entailed piecing together

often-disparate information gained through human, scientific and other primary and secondary sources to construct compelling, accurate and cohesive written narratives,” he said.

His writing has appeared in Scientific American, New York, Women’s Health, AARP, Outside, Details, Men’s Journal,Cosmopolitan and FiveThirtyEight.com.

In 2017, he joined the University of Nevada-Las Vegas as a full-time visiting lecturer at the school’s Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies. In 2019, he co-founded the school’s Public Communication Initiative, a think tank that helps academics, business and governmental organizations improve their communication with the public.

But, as he describes in The Comfort Crisis, his early professional success masked struggles with addiction.

“I had an enviable career at a glossy magazine as a health journalist dispensing advice on how to live a better life. I was good at the job. But I wasn’t exactly living the wisdom I wrote. Most of my mental energy was spent toggling back and forth between being drunk and obsessing over the next drink,” he wrote.

After hitting a low point, he managed to quit cold turkey, and begin rebuilding his life. Part of that journey was his revelation that he was “marinating” in comfort; from his temperature-controlled house to his ability to quell boredom with a smartphone to his access to no-effort highly caloric foods.

With inspiration from Donnie Vincent, a biologist and documentary filmmaker, he decided to go on a five-week hunting trip to the Alaskan Arctic tundra in search of caribou—and write a book about it. He faced freezing temperatures, the threat of grizzly bears, cliffs and long hours without modern distractions—and came away with a new outlook on life. A journey to self As Easter narrates his Alaskan adventure, he shares insights from data studies and interviews on how we’ve evolved and adapted to our lives of comfort. He also offers science-based recommendations to improve our health—such as taking long, weighted walks (called rucking) to build endurance and strength.

His book describes topics as diverse as why acknowledging impermanence in Bhutan makes the Bhutanese among the happiest people and the link between Icelanders’ long life spans and their long history of discomfort. His research touches on the “loneliness epidemic” in the U.S.; the importance of building “the capacity to be alone;” and how time in nature leads to documented improvements in our immune systems, as well as productivity and creativity.

Easter also uncovers research on the creative and mental benefits of boredom, which came into full focus during long days in the Arctic.

“The key to improving productivity and performance might be to occasionally do nothing at all,” he writes.

Easter, who spent years weaving his research into a book, hopes it encourages people to undertake their own misogi. He said these challenges are for anyone, at any level.

“You have to start where you are. There are many ways to slowly leave your comfort zone,” he said. Easter remains faithful to his own yearly misogi. This year, he pushed himself to run three times the distance of his longest run of 16 miles. “I went out and tried to run four laps around Red Rock Canyon [located in Nevada], a 12-mile loop. On the third lap, I thought Easter discusses his book on May 11 during a nearly three-hour interview with ‘no way, this is the last comedian Joe Rogan on the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.” one. It was a good idea, fun while it lasted.’ But when I finished that lap, for whatever reason, I kept going. Something was going on that pushed me to go that extra lap. It makes me think to myself, ‘What else am I selling myself short on? Do I have these certain limits that I’m not correct on?’” A different view The Comfort Crisis dedicates a chapter to “problem creep”—the propensity for humans to always look for problems, even in the absence of them. Realizing this tendency has been the biggest takeaway for him, Easter said. “By looking for problems, you lose perspective and you lose gratitude and that colors the rest of your day,” he said. Easter said he experienced “a complete perspective shift” upon returning from Alaska. Now, even something as regular as going to a dinner with his wife feels different. “We go to this restaurant where the food is amazing, but service is the worst. Instead of focusing on why they are taking so long—this inefficiency, that inefficiency—I can now sit in that restaurant with crappy service and think, ‘I’m warm right now. I’m about to eat an ungodly amount of calories. They will bring water eventually, and I don’t have to hike down to a spring surrounded by grizzly bears.’ That makes me a better person,” he said.

Bringing id

Whitney O’Reardon ’22 made a coin using metal casting equipment and a 3D scan of her face. One assignment required students to laser-cut cardboard to use as building blocks to assemble in any way. O’Reardon created this tree. Amanda Hodgkins ’24 collaborated with O’Reardon for their final project to design and build a hexapod seating unit that has lights and sound features.

Makers conquer creative challenges in Fab Academy course

By Sandy Coleman

Since childhood, Ozgur “Tuna” Ozturk ’24 has been in love with inventions.

That love lured him into Wheaton’s Innovation Spaces, where he has gone from hanging out and experimenting in the Fab Lab to becoming a Fab Lab assistant and then, last spring, taking on one of the most creatively challenging classes he has faced so far—Wheaton’s new Fab Academy course.

Fab Academy is an intensive, six-month interdisciplinary course in digital fabrication. In the fast-paced experience, students learn to envision, design and prototype projects using digital fabrication tools and machines in Wheaton’s Innovation Spaces.

The course underscores the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are integral to Wheaton’s liberal arts education, and equips students with professional training to take ideas and turn them into real prototypes and products.

“I always wondered how everything worked—from the combustion engine to microcontrollers. Moreover, almost everyone in my family works in the manufacturing field,” said Ozturk, an international student from Turkey. “So, I’ve always had this interest in ‘how to make almost anything,’ which is the motto of Fab Academy.”

Ozturk, who is double majoring in computer science and physics and wants

deas to life

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O’Reardon made QR code keychains using the 3D printer in the Fab Lab.

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Kevin Elkhoury ’21, Madison Dunaway, Fab Academy co-lead instructor, and John Proctor ’22

to be an engineer, is one of 11 students and one alum who took Wheaton’s first Fab Academy course during the spring semester.

He and the other students who enrolled possess the kind of curiosity, passion and willingness to work through tough challenges required to succeed in the rigorous course, noted Madison Dunaway, who is coordinator of Innovation Spaces and Programs at Wheaton.

“The class is 20 to 30 hours of work each week. It’s important that students possess grit and the ability to stick with it,” said Dunaway, who is a 2020 Fab Academy graduate, having gone through the program at Dassault Systèmes in Waltham, Mass.

She led the effort to establish Wheaton’s Fab Academy course, which began January 27 and continued through mid-July. She also is the co-lead instructor for the course, working with faculty co-lead Associate Professor of Physics Jason Goodman.

Wheaton is the first liberal arts college in the United States to offer the Fab Academy course, said Dunaway.The two-credit, 300-level course increases and elevates the opportunities for students to learn to make things and navigate challenges through hands-on experience in Wheaton’s Innovation Spaces.

“Wheaton is uniquely positioned to provide curated student experiences centered on their interests,” Dunaway said. “Fab Academy is an opportunity for students to participate in a globally networked program that fully harnesses the inherent potential of digital fabrication. This technology facilitates iterative design that can ultimately become a driving force for innovation.”

The Fab Academy program connects a global community of students, educators, makers and researchers through a network of 70 Fab Labs in 30 countries. Each Fab Lab goes through an approval process that ensures the infrastructure and the tools necessary to participate in the program and to offer a Fab Academy course are in place.

Dunaway and Goodman collaborate with Fab Academy program director and global instructor Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. Gershenfeld originally taught “How to Make Almost

KEITH NORDSTROM

Anything” as an MIT course, which grew into the Fab Academy program in 2009.

“Neil delivers the online lectures that give students a whirlwind tour of new technologies and techniques on a different topic each week,” said Goodman. “Madison and I work together on the hands-on, in-person side; we run a weekly lab where we show students how to turn Neil’s fire hose of ideas into workable practical projects.”

“We also do troubleshooting, training, give design help and grade students on their work. Usually, Madison takes the lead on the more mechanical activities— 3D printing, laser cutting, mold making—and I focus on electronics, circuit board design and programming,” Goodman said.

The Fab Academy class is structured so that students learn in local work groups and then connect globally in an online campus through weekly lectures, content sharing, critiques and interactive video classes with students around the world, said Dunaway.

Students create websites to document their work in images and written reflection that provides the technical details about software and tools used as well as lessons learned from successes and failures.

At the end of the course, participants receive a diploma from the Fab Academy program at a special graduation. This year, the ceremony took place in August virtually as well as in person at Dassault Systèmes in Waltham, Mass.

“Careerwise, the Fab Academy course is a unique experience, a huge resume-builder and a chance to network and make connections on a global scale,” said Goodman. “Students will be able to use these skills to develop new products, create new works of art, develop scientific instruments—the sky’s the limit.”

Professor Goodman was one of the coordinators of the InterMedia Arts Group Innovation Network (IMAGINE) that set up the college’s original makerspace, Fiberspace and digital learning labs, thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation in 2014.

The participants in Wheaton’s inaugural Fab Academy course had to apply and have completed prerequisite courses in physics, computer science and industrial design to ensure they were prepared for the demands of the class. A variety of majors, including computer science, physics, chemistry, neuroscience and visual art, were drawn to the class.

Several students who took the class said they were seeking to expand the knowledge they gained from making things in Innovation Spaces and from previously taking “Introduction to Digital Fabrication” taught by Dunaway.

They also expressed their common struggles—managing the time commitment, pushing themselves to quickly master new skills to keep pace, and developing a growth mindset to continually face and overcome failures when assignments didn’t work out as planned.

“The biggest lesson I have learned from this class is to never underestimate anything,” said Ozturk, who made a handheld

What is the Fab Academy?

The Fab Academy program, established in 2009, is a global network of certified Fab Labs where students work to “learn to make [almost] anything,” as stated on fabacademy.org. Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms is the program director and global instructor. He presents weekly online lectures around the world in collaboration with Fab Academy instructors and professors, who work locally to teach and guide students and evaluate their work as they progress in the six-month, two-credit interdisciplinary course in digital fabrication. Successful completion of assignments designed to demonstrate acquired skills in design, programming, project management, problem-solving and more results in a Fab Diploma.

Ozgur "Tuna" Ozturk ’24 (left) milling a board; above, close-up of an early stage of the handheld game console he designed for his final project

Newsweek in August named Wheaton on “The Best Maker Schools 2021” list that includes higher education institutions in the U.S. and abroad.

Wheaton’s Innovation Spaces is made up of labs spread out in buildings across campus. • Wheaton’s Fab Lab houses 3D printers, a laser cutter, electronics and other high-tech rapid-prototype tools and machines.

• The Digital Lab focuses on virtual and augmented reality. • The Fiber Lab has tools for textile work.

• The Idea Lab was created in collaboration with the Diana Davis

Spencer ’60 Foundation to encourage social entrepreneurship and global social impact. • The Shop focuses on woodworking, metalworking, prototyping and construction.

game console during the first few weeks of the course and then refined it for his final project. “After I made that, I was so sure that everything would be smooth sailing. Unfortunately, the more research I did, the more complex it got.”

The challenging nature of the course is exactly what enticed Professor Goodman to get involved.

“Fab Academy is a really unique opportunity for students to engage in engineering and design at a serious, near-professional level. It expects far more from our students than we’ve been able to ask for in the past, and I wanted to be a part of that, and I wanted to help

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Jacob Libby ’22 and Emma Yount ’22 troubleshooting Fab Academy project

students navigate the challenge,” the professor said.

Practicing patience and perseverance The biggest lesson that Emma Yount ’22 said she learned during Fab Academy was patience.

“There were so many instances where I had spent days on a project and I had to completely restart or have no idea why something was not working,” said Yount.

Before this year, she had no previous experience with coding and electrical circuit building.

“Trying to successfully complete each week’s class assignment in the limited time frame was very challenging. I have learned so much about digital engineering and design. As a visual arts major, I am excited to see how these skills will influence my creative career,” she said.

For her final project, Yount used a 3D printer, vinyl cutter as well as hand stitching to make a shadow box lantern of the mountain that leads to Tiger’s Nest Monastery in Bhutan. Her study abroad trip there was canceled due to the pandemic, but she wanted to create something for her dorm room to keep the country in mind.

On the website she created for class, Yount detailed the project: “This lantern contains multiple cut paper layers that depict a [three-dimensional] replica of the Tiger’s Nest mountain trail. The lantern has a rotating base. When you turn the base, the neopixels inside the lantern will travel up the shade following the shape of the mountain to mimic how you would be climbing up the actual Tiger’s Nest trail.”

Gaining interdisciplinary skills Because students were required to reflect on their assignments each week in writing, they had opportunities to hone communication skills that are important in every field of study.

“Being a neuroscience major, many of my professors often stress how interdisciplinary the field is, and how vital competency in other fields of STEM is. I took Fab Academy because I wanted to gain skills that would be beneficial in my future career. Also, the ability to create cool stuff didn’t hurt,” said Elizabeth Shelto ’23.

Fab Academy not only helped Shelto gain skills, such as programming and using 3D design software, but it also taught her how to effectively navigate resources to create anything she wants, she said.

“I’m not leaving the course with a set of information that I’ve memorized, rather I am leaving with a new set of skills and

the knowledge of how to build upon them and tailor them to my own projects and interests,” she said.

For her final project, Shelto created a remote-controlled essential oil diffuser to help with the dry air of New England winters, which she noted from experience can cause nosebleeds.

Her diffuser requires less effort on the consumer’s part, according to her online description. She included a Graphical User Interface to allow the user to turn the diffuser on and off from a computer.

For Shelto, the most challenging part of Fab Academy was the fast pace.

“We were presented with a new skill at the beginning of each week and had to be able to demonstrate what we had learned by the end,” she said. “Luckily, I had amazing professors and classmates that were always willing to point me toward good resources, answer my questions and offer help.”

Opening up creative possibilities Whitney O’Reardon ’22, a visual arts and art history double major, enrolled in Fab

The Fab Academy students meet in the former campus bookstore to discuss final projects. Pictured: Madison Dunaway, coordinator of Innovation Spaces and Programs, Emma Yount ’22, Brandon Witter ’20, Ozgur “Tuna” Ozturk ’24, Associate Professor of Physics Jason Goodman, Amanda Hodgkins ’24, Elizabeth Shelto ’23, John Proctor ’22, David Frey ’21, Jesse Eubanks ’21, Jacob Libby ’22, Rushil Bhatia ’23 and Whitney O’Reardon ’22

Academy to become more familiar with electronics design and programming after taking “Introduction to Digital Fabrication,” taught by Dunaway during the fall 2020 semester.

“I have three favorite projects. One of the early assignments was to use our laser cutter to make cardboard building blocks that I could assemble in any way. We learned how to use the laser cutter to make joint connections and how to use 2D CAD software. I made mine into the shape of a tree,” O’Reardon said.

She also used metal casting equipment to make a coin.

“I modeled this coin in software called Fusion 360 and I made a 3D scan of my face to put on the coin design. Then, I used mold-making equipment to create a heat-resistant rubber mold and I melted and casted pewter inside of it,” she said.

For her final project, she worked with Amanda Hodgkins ’24 to make a hexapod, a geometric seating pod with adjustable lighting and a programmed board that controls the sound from speakers. She employed a laser cutter, 3D printer and a CNC router to make it. The hexapod is meant to be a reading nook for the Fab Lab.

“This class was very rigorous,” O’Reardon said. “There was so much hands-on activity and a lot of my learning came through making mistakes, so my projects required a lot of commitment,” she said.

All the work was worth it. “Fab Academy has shown me the potential of digital fabrication tools. As a visual arts major this is very exciting because it opens up so many creative possibilities.”

Expecting the unexpected Hodgkins made multiple circuit boards with different functions and molds that

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she used to create jewelry, including a metal casted pewter ring. She also 3D-printed various items and collaborated with O’Reardon on the hexapod seating pod for her final project.

“The biggest lesson I learned was that not everything will work out the way that you want, and that’s OK,” Hodgkins said. “Throughout the course I encountered all sorts of challenges in completing my projects, whether it be issues with my code, incorrect measurements or just human error. It was definitely discouraging at times, but overcoming these issues was always extremely fulfilling and made me feel incredibly proud. Mistakes and their eventual corrections allow you to grow as a student.”

“Another large part of the course was having work critiqued at both the local and global level, which allowed me to gain valuable insight from different sources to integrate into my work and make it better,” she said. “I definitely gained experience with deadlines and presentation of my work, which will be helpful both for other classes and possible job situations in the future.”

Putting making to work

Brandon Witter ’20, who majored in computer science at Wheaton and was president of the Social Entrepreneurship Club, returned to take Fab Academy.

“I am so glad I decided to come back a year after graduating to spend five months learning digital fabrication,” Witter said. “Before graduating, I had really only used the 3D printer and laser cutter. Fab Academy showed me that Wheaton has so many more amazing machines on campus.”

Witter enrolled with virtually no background in digital fabrication, so every week brought a new challenge.

“I absolutely loved every minute of it. The projects were always difficult, but never unachievable. I found that immersing myself to create something each week that I could personally enjoy really made it easier,” he said.

His final project in the class was The MakerBar, designed to make the perfect rum and cola at the push of a button.

“I truly believe that anyone has the capability to learn how to use these machines to make something they can be proud of,” he said. “This is where the inspiration for my career came from.”

Witter landed a job this fall teaching“Intro to Computer Science, Digital Fabrication, Robotics and Entrepreneurship” at Catholic Memorial School in West Roxbury, Mass., for which he credits Wheaton.

“My unique background as a computer science major with digital fabrication skills and almost three years of social entrepreneurship knowledge really stood out among the other applicants,” Witter said.

“That is all because of Wheaton and Fab Academy. I really want to thank Madison Dunaway and Jason Goodman for mentoring me through my time both at Wheaton and Fab Academy. Their guidance is a major reason why I chose the teaching route. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to help teach the future generation of makers.”

Making connections

Alexis Nieves ’14 stands in front of the U.S. Embassy in downtown Madrid, Spain, where he is assigned as a U.S. diplomat.

in Madrid

Alexis Nieves ’14 builds relationships, advances U.S. interests as foreign service officer

By Sandy Coleman

Throughout his life, Alexis Nieves ’14 has paid keen attention to inspiration as it has shown up in various ways, guiding him to his career in international relations.

He is a U.S. diplomat/foreign service officer currently assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain. In his role, he represents the government and people of the United States by maintaining relationships with foreign countries and international organizations. The goal is to promote and protect U.S. political, economic and commercial interests overseas, fostering strong connections.

The journey to Spain began at home in Brooklyn, N.Y., where his mother was a daily reminder of all that is possible, and it winds through Wheaton, where his first international relations class fueled an interest in global interdependence and led him to double major in international relations and Hispanic studies.

Nieves’s mother emigrated to the United States more than 30 years ago, fleeing civil war in El Salvador, he said during a Zoom interview one evening after walking home from his office at the embassy in downtown Madrid.

“Her story inspires me a lot. She came to the U.S. and began as a housekeeper, learned English and worked her way to becoming an educator. Seeing her trajectory and leadership by example has been a major source, if not the biggest source, of inspiration in my life,” Nieves said.

“And, I think, it is only in the U.S. that the son of a migrant, whose first job in the U.S. was as a housekeeper, could go on to become a U.S. diplomat. And my story isn’t special. It is America that makes it possible.”

Nieves (who is fluent in Spanish and has a professional proficiency in French and Portuguese) tells this story as he talks about his work, his career path and why it was important for him to make a virtual visit back to Wheaton during the spring semester. At the invitation of Associate Professor of Hispanic studies Montserrat PérezToribio, Nieves shared how he landed his job, provided advice and encouraged students to believe in all possibilities— paying forward inspiration.

Mission-driven work

Currently, Nieves serves as vice consul in Madrid. Foreign service officers are assigned to roles for two years in various countries. Job titles and responsibilities may change based on the assignment.

In addition to representing the United States, he also provides emergency and

non-emergency services to American citizens and is charged with the adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens as well as immigrant and non-immigrant visas. Prior to his Madrid assignment, he was the economic officer in the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti.

“I always wanted to serve my country and make a difference in people’s lives. I wanted to be on the forefront of foreign policymaking and represent my country abroad,” he said. “My mission in life is to leave this world a better place. I believe that my aspirations have to be broad enough to include the needs of others. Foreign service fits into this sense of self and mission because it is a career that affords me the opportunity to apply my professional and lived experiences to address the great challenges of our time—climate change, national security issues and so much more.”

One of his proudest moments occurred at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when he worked with officials in Haiti to help the U.S. solve a major shortage of medical personal protection equipment.

“Haiti is a country that has many factories where garments are produced,” he said. “During the pandemic, working with colleagues, I led an initiative to encourage the Haitian government and factories to switch their production modules from producing garments to medical personal protective equipment for export to the U.S. For me, being able to contribute, even something as small as that, was something I felt proud of. Haitian factories ended up exporting more than 500,000 masks to the U.S.”

A roundtrip ticket to Spain

Nieves studied abroad in Spain in 2013 with Programa de Estudios Hispánicos en Córdoba, a language and cultural immersion program at the University of Cordoba.

“What drew me to Spain was the culture, the language and the fact that my mom’s great-grandfather was from here. It’s one country I’ve always wanted

“Wheaton helps to cultivate your potential. It gives you the setting you need to think about the change you want to make in the world.”

Alexis Nieves ’14

to explore. For me, there is a lot about the country’s values and lifestyles that speak to who I am. There is obviously a connection there with the Spanish language,” he said.

His study abroad was a perfect complement to his Hispanic studies at Wheaton as well as a source of adventure to fulfill a long-held desire to explore the world.

While studying abroad in Spain he found out that he had won a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship—the first student to do so in Wheaton history. The highly competitive program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, selects and prepares undergraduates who are interested in international relations and foreign service careers.

The fellowship provides professional development opportunities; covers the expense of graduate studies at designated institutions; and offers a domestic internship at the State Department in Washington, D.C.; and an international internship at a U.S. embassy, consulate or diplomatic mission around the globe. Fellows agree to a five-year minimum commitment as a foreign service officer.

“Coming back here [to Spain] as a diplomat is pretty awesome; it is coming full circle,” said Nieves.

Because of his mother’s story, he had an interest in the plight of immigrants in the U.S. that he pursued at Wheaton.

“I had an intellectual thirst to unravel why people decide to leave countries they consider home to travel and migrate to different countries in search of better economic opportunities,” he said.

It was at Wheaton that Nieves discovered his passion for international relations and foreign policy.

“I wanted to understand how international events impacted us in the United States. I understood early on that we live in an interconnected world and that our future prosperity and security as a nation relies heavily on our ability to keep our diplomatic ties with other countries strong,” he said.

That understanding was deepened in the class “U.S. Foreign Policy,” taught by Professor of Political Science Darlene Boroviak. She remembers Nieves with the same amount of admiration he has for her.

“I was delighted to work with Alexis. It is one of the great pleasures of teaching to watch a student ‘catch on fire,’ and that is what I saw happening with Alexis in that course,” Boroviak said. “I could see that he was discovering how his genuine interest in international affairs could be transformed into practical policy outcomes. In this course and in the ‘International Law’ course, Alexis stood out because of his cosmopolitan understanding of global issues and his enthusiasm for learning. I am sure this is what carried him through a challenging graduate program and into diplomatic work.”

Nieves, who is a Posse Scholar, has a master’s degree in international relations and national security studies from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

A virtual visit to Norton

Nieves’s passion for his field of study and his work came across loud and clear when he paid a virtual visit to Wheaton during the spring semester in Professor Pérez-Toribio’s course “The Hispanic World: Spain.”

Pérez-Toribio invited a variety of guest speakers to encourage students to expand their knowledge of Spain’s cultural diversity and practice their language skills with native and fluent Spanish speakers.

“Since many of our Hispanic studies majors and minors were not able to go abroad due to COVID-19, I thought it would be nice to bring Spain and the experiences of a group of Spanish

In March, Nieves made a presentation in Spanish in the course “The Hispanic World: Spain,” taught by Professor Montserrat Pérez-Toribio.

citizens and residents to our classroom,” said Pérez-Toribio, noting that Nieves presented in Spanish. “The ultimate goal was to provide a safe and comfortable virtual space where students could be curious, ask questions in Spanish and make connections with the materials learned in class.”

Nieves was happy to accept the invitation to share his journey and Wheaton’s role in his success. “It was a great opportunity to talk to [Pérez-Toribio’s] students about how her class helped me improve my Spanish. Taking a class with her made me even more curious to go to Spain.”

While in high school, Nieves didn’t even think he would be able to afford college— until he won a Posse scholarship in 2010.

“That changed the course of my life. I can’t imagine where I would be without that opportunity. I’d like to think with my work ethic that I would be somewhere, but I don’t know if I would be where I am now,” he said. “The Posse scholarship led me to Wheaton and then Wheaton just opened up a floodgate of opportunities and those opportunities led me to where I am today.

“Wheaton helps to cultivate your potential. It gives you the setting you need to think about the change you want to make in the world,” he said. “Those classroom conversations, office hours with professors, the small student-to-faculty ratio and the academic environment really allowed me and others the space and the opportunity to really think and reflect on what kind of change we want to make in the world and the ways in which we are going to pursue our dreams and chase our goals.”

He has kept in touch with many of his professors and often asks for advice. This time, he was providing advice to students.

“One of the biggest pieces of advice I give people all the time is to hone in on their public speaking and written communication skills because regardless of the job you have in the future, those skills go a long way,” Nieves said.

“I told them to seek out opportunities for professional development and to network. I told them to embrace the feeling of discomfort, to put themselves in positions where they might be uncomfortable because those tend to be the positions where we grow the most. I think sometimes when you are really uncomfortable in a place or when you get outside of your comfort zone, as cliché as it sounds, it really pushes you and it really helps you grow,” he said.

“The last piece of advice I gave them was to embrace adversity. There is no way of avoiding adversity. Adversity is a natural part of life, so we just have to learn how to embrace it and learn how to make the most of it and learn how to persevere.”