Bruno, New Gibbons
Bruno is an resident assistant for the New Gibbons on Cook Campus. A junior from Bound Brook, N.J., he is majoring in finance.
On being a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) student...
I was born in Asuncion, Paraguay. I moved to the United States when I was three and have lived ever since; I consider myself as American. I am a first generation, low-income, Latino student who is also a DACA recipient. My parents sacrificed everything to be able to give me and my brother everything we needed. I think it’s important for students to receive support at any level, so I think it’s great New Jersey passed the law to give aid to DACA students. Being a DACA student is hard because we don’t receive aid and FAFSA like many other students. This new law will definitely be helping a lot of families, including mine.
Destined for Greatness…
A lot of people don’t know that I am named after Bruno Diaz, who is the ‘Bruce Wayne’ of Paraguay. In Paraguay, Batman is named Bruno Diaz instead of Bruce Wayne. My parents named me Bruno because they wanted me to be famous one day like the real Bruno Diaz.
On being an Resident Assistant (RA)….
This is my second year being an RA and my second year in New Gibbons. I love being an RA because I love be able to see my residents grow up. I have a lot of first-year [residents] this year, so these past two months I have been able to see their transformation: from learning how to work the bus system to making new friends in the community. I owe my passion for being an RA to my first-year RA. During my first year I lived in Voorhees Hall, my RA was really good at building and bringing residents together as a community. He made all of us feel at home and so close to each other. I wanted to be able to give the same feeling to my residents. I was a sophomore last year, the youngest person on the staff, but I was able to show initiative and became a leader within my staff. I was very proud to be nominated for Residence Life’s Rookie of the year award. At the end of the year banquet, when they called my name, I knew it was because of the hard work I put in to make an impact on the entire New Gibbons community.
Involvement...
I am the president of Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) which is a business professional organization on campus. Before becoming president, I searched for organizations to get involved with on campus. I came across ALPFA and reached out to them. The executive board members at the time responded and they took me out to eat; it was really a welcoming environment. Being part of this organization, I have been able to work on public speaking, organizational skills and managing a team. I had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas for an annual convention, where I presented a case study and was able to meet ALPFA members from different chapters. The Rutgers Get Involved website is a great resource. It’s the only website where you can access all the clubs at Rutgers and get useful information about them such as meeting times, websites, and contact information. For fun, outside of ALPFA, I like playing intramural basketball and beach volleyball.
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