Seize the Day

Arelí Hernández ’19 is a force to be reckoned with. The triple major and two-time Fulbright award winner is making waves from Colombia to England.

Triple major. Two-time Fulbright award winner. Global fellow. To say that Arelí Hernández ’19 grabbed the opportunities Santa Clara offers almost sounds like an understatement.

Her second Fulbright award sends her to Colombia to teach English. In her first, as a sophomore, she was one of four Americans in a three-week program visiting some of London’s top universities. As a Global fellow, she interned in Kadapa, India, at the Aarti Home for Girls. As a junior, she was off to Ecuador to study with a nonprofit helping integrate refugee and immigrant populations.

It’s a world she understands. Hernández herself is the daughter of immigrants. Her parents settled in the Napa Valley. She sees their efforts in her success.

“As the daughter of two incredibly hardworking immigrants from Mexico, I am so thankful for all that my family has taught me, and I am excited to continue seeing the fruits of their labor come to life,” Hernández says.

She also thinks SCU’s program for first-generation college students—which includes mentors and a special orientation—helps students uncover the possible.

“The LEAD program has been instrumental in me surviving college and pushing me to think of things and spaces I could occupy that I normally wouldn’t think of—like the Fulbright program,” says Hernández.

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While at Santa Clara, Arelí Hernández ’19 danced with the campus baile folklórico group. Image by Jim Gensheimer
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