When Alexandra Aponte ’20 (ENG) spoke to her mom on the night of September 19, 2017, she wasn’t too concerned about Puerto Rico.

Talks of yet another hurricane were circling the news, just two weeks after Hurricane Irma had hit the island, but Aponte knew to think twice before panicking. Born and raised on the island, Aponte lived through various hurricane warnings for storms that would either slow down drastically by the time they hit the island or miss it all together. In fact, the running joke, she says, was that Puerto Rico had a magic shield that protected it from tropical storms. So when she hung up with her mom, she was convinced she’d hear from her first thing in the morning, and once again the hurricane would have been all talk.

But when she woke up there was no call.

Aponte wasn’t alone. Eight other students from Puerto Rico, who started at UConn with her in 2016, were in the same predicament — some unable to reach their families and friends for hours and others for several weeks.

Nearly a category 5 hurricane, with winds at 155 mph, Hurricane Maria became the strongest to hit Puerto Rico in 80 years. Causing widespread destruction, Maria left millions without electricity or clean water for months and caused nearly 3,000 fatalities, a number reported much later in an independent study by George Washington University.

When all nine students committed to UConn they did so in hopes of tapping into greater opportunities. And, of course, as they settled in freshman year they were prepared to find their fair share of hurdles, even more than the average student. From speaking English every day to seeing snow for the first time, their experience was similar to that of international students, they say, with the exception of holding a U.S. passport.

But Hurricane Maria was one challenge none of them could foresee. Just weeks after starting their sophomore year here, their friends and families were shaken like never before, 1,633 miles away. And all they could do was watch from the sidelines.

“The hardest part for all of us was not being able to take a boots-on-the-ground approach. All we had were pictures and videos showing us a Puerto Rico that we didn’t recognize,” says Diego Rivera ’21 (ENG).

Classes were missed, exams were failed, and campus leaders were stumped in the face of uncertainty. But when they could have given up and returned home, they pushed forward.

Inspired by the catastrophe, they were more determined than ever to not only graduate in hopes of returning to Puerto Rico one day to make a difference, but also to represent their island the only way they knew how — with resilience.

“Being Puerto Rican means staying positive, finding joy in even the simplest of situations, and looking out for one another,” says Javier Gomez ’20 (CLAS).

“That’s exactly how we got through Hurricane Maria. Friends became family and we all helped each other from there on out. We become one in the name of the island.”

Three years after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has experienced several other turbulent moments, including a change in government, earthquakes, and more recently, of course, the devastating effects of Covid-19. But with each experience, these students say both they and their island have grown stronger.

Indeed, this is the most decorated senior class of Puerto Ricans UConn has seen. From working as guides at the Visitor’s Center to excelling in the Honors Programs, these Huskies have made their mark across campus.

Typically, an average of two to three students directly from Puerto Rico drop out of UConn each year for a variety of reasons, says Aida Silva, Senior Associate Director of Admissions. This is one of the largest groups to graduate in a long time, she says, and one of the most accomplished. She can’t wait to see what they do next.

We caught up with all nine students just before campus closed and most headed home. With one of the country’s strictest lockdowns, Puerto Rico has aimed to keep Covid-19 cases at bay by enforcing a curfew and travel ban among other things. Like the rest of the graduating class of 2020, they were unable to celebrate their accomplishments at Gampel Pavilion. While sad, they agreed it was for the best.

“Obviously commencement is important because it’s a celebration of us. But this small sacrifice to save lives is worth it. We’ve gone through so much that this is nothing to me,” Daniel Cintron ’20 (CLAS) told us.

And virtual graduation gave them the chance to celebrate with friends and family, who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to attend. “While this is not what I expected, I think this is how it had to happen,” said Aponte. “No better place to graduate than the island that shaped me.”

Since the moment Aponte set foot on campus, she saw the value in student involvement. She has been a key player in the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center, a STEM Scholar, an event coordinator, and the president of the Puerto Rican Student Association (PuRSA).

But overall her greatest accomplishment, she says, was as chairperson for the Student Development Committee in the Undergraduate Student Government. There she was influential in starting conversations about culture and identity at UConn through an initiative she helped create, the Cultural Awareness Series.
“Attending and graduating UConn is the easy part,” Aponte says. “The challenge is occupying spaces you wouldn’t often see minority students in. If you don’t see yourself represented somewhere, you make space for yourself and get things done.”

She’ll start with a job in Connecticut, joining Pfizer as a manufacturing engineer later this year.