Eddie Andujar
Eddie Andujar

First Major: International Affairs                            
Second Major: Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Thesis:  A Reflective Narrative on Nuyorican Indentity

Personal Statement
I didn’t learn how to pronounce my last name until my sophomore year at Lafayette.  Because I didn’t know Spanish growing up, I wasn’t able to read books by Latino authors, understand the lyrics of Latino songs, or converse with my grandmother in her native tongue. I felt disenfranchised from my Puerto Rican family, my community, and myself. All around my public housing development in New York City existed a world I could not partake in. From my 19th story window, I was unsure of how to make a change.

During my time at Lafayette College, I chose a path and I stuck to it. That journey has extended over fifty thousand miles across the world and it has allowed me to transcend language barriers, social obstacles, as well as my own personal fears.

From traveling a thousand miles through Southern Mexico, diagnosing institutionalized discrimination in Denmark, participating in Project BOMA with Đorđe Rakić in Serbia, studying human rights only a few minutes away from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, discussing social justice with Israeli and Palestinian politicians and activists, and reclaiming my language and heritage by being fully immersed in Puerto Rico, one might think that I have been off campus more than I have been on it.

The reality is anything but.

At Lafayette, I have dedicated myself to public service, social justice, and multicultural awareness. From planning Hispanic Heritage Month and planting 2,500 flags for Immigration Week, to leading Kaleidoscope or Grossman presentations, and challenging the status quo on campus with my Posse, I have been able to stand on the shoulders of giants and see further than anyone in my family has ever been able to before.

And I’ve been calling down to other students, “Come on up and see this view too.”

Academic Activities/Awards – Total Years Involved

  • Senior Honors International Affairs Thesis “This Box Isn’t Big Enough: A Reflective Narrative on Nuyorican Identity” 1
    Within my thesis I appropriate the bildunsroman, or coming-of-age story, in order to analyze the social conditions that have shaped my family’s distinct inner-city culture in relation to the Puerto Rican diaspora. Through the use of journal entries and poetry, I find, and claim, my place within Puerto Rican history while also reimagining the way that Puerto Rican literature perpetuates certain stereotypes or ignores various facets of diasporic identity. The term “Nuyorican” connotes a Puerto Rican born and raised in New York City. While organizing and completing this thesis, I have uncovered family histories that I had previously never been told, including the stories of my grandparents migration to New York City and the discrimination and racism they experienced when they first arrived. I took this project on to counter the claim that “Puerto Rican culture is dying” and to express that it is only growing in beautiful and unprecedented ways, from which, many immigrant / migrant groups may relate.
  • Posse Merit Based Leadership Scholarship 4
    Each year, twenty students are selected as Lafayette Posse Scholars from New York City and Washington D.C. The Posse Scholarship is one of the most competitive scholarship competitions in the country, with thousands of applications received for top-tier institutions nationwide. Lafayette Posse Scholars are selected for their academic, leadership, and communication skills. Prior to stepping on campus, I received eight months of cross-cultural communication training. I was expected to be not only a strong student socially and academically, but to also demonstrate outstanding interpersonal and problem-solving skills. Posse Scholars are expected to serve as a catalyst for increased individual and community development and are identified for their leadership ability and overall motivation to succeed. I feel that I have exemplified the mission of the Posse Program during my time at Lafayette, in part because of my training and mentorship provided by Danielle Bero ’07, whom was my greatest inspiration for impacting change on campus. Danielle was awarded the Pepper Prize, as was the last Posse Scholar to do so. I remember watching her commencement speech constantly throughout my first year and imagining what my experience at Lafayette would be like. I’m honored to be a finalist for the same accolade she was awarded.
  • Sigma Iota Rho 1
    This National Honor Society for International Studies was formed in 1984 at American University in Washington, D.C. with the purpose of promoting and rewarding scholarship and service among students majoring in International Relations. In 2005, Lafayette College established the Beta Upsilon Chapter to honor those Lafayette students who have excelled academically and who have shown extracurricular achievement. I was among those selected for induction due to my outstanding academic performance overall and in the field of International Affairs.
  • Lafayette College Dean’s List 2
    I have maintained a high level of academic performance throughout my time at Lafayette.
  • Spanish Studies Abroad Diversity Scholarship 1
    Awarded to high achieving students who are traditionally underrepresented in study abroad programs.

Campus Service/Activities and Awards – Total Years Involved

  • Hispanic Society of Lafayette 4
    I have been an active member of HSL throughout all my 4 years at Lafayette and I am currently serving as its Vice President. I have organized countless brownbags and social events centered on social justice and cultural exchange. I have also led numerous presentations on topics pertinent to the Hispanic / Latino community that have brought together perspectives from community activists, faculty, staff, and students alike. Throughout my tenure, relationships have been built between Lafayette College and local institutions serving the Latino / Hispanic community in Easton. Together we have begun developing programs for at-risk children in the Easton school system and the children of undocumented parents. For Hispanic Heritage Month, I have organized lectures, student panels, and performances which have included visits by Tony award-winning poets, critically acclaimed journalists, and nationally renowned community activists. I have also led programming for Immigration Week, an event series focused on the themes of morality and social justice that remain largely undiscussed within the overarching topic of U.S. immigration policy. The physical representation of the messages HSL has tried to share have included the construction of a border wall in front of Farinon during my Sophomore year and, during this past year, the placement of 2,500 flags on the Quad to serve as a memorial for the vast amount of deaths in the Arizone desert.
  • Kaleidoscope Social Justice Peer Educator 1
    Kaleidoscope is an organization that encourages Lafayette students to take an active role in promoting intercultural exchange and exploring issues of multiculturalism, equity, and social justice. The program challenges student educators and peer participants to think critically about their communities. As a Peer Educator, I have dedicated myself to facilitating discussions on topics such as power, privilege, and oppression for students, faculty, administrators, and prospective families.
  • Office of Intercultural Development Student Assistant 1
    As a Student Assistant, I investigated the legacy of Lafayette College’s Latino / Hispanic students, from 1832 to the present, by working closely with archivists in the Office of Special Collections as well as the Office of Institutional Research. These findings ultimately lead to the creation of a Latino / Hispanic alumni network that is managed by the Hispanic Society of Lafayette. I also extensively planned and programmed events for Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, and met with a number of local Easton area community activists and organizers to understand what role Lafayette students could playing in aiding the community. All of these projects were ultimately integrated into the programming of various student groups on campus.
  • Project BOMA 1
    Project BOMA is a competitive program funded by Lafayette in which pairs of international and American students spend time in each others’ homes, experiencing the other’s family and culture, and record their travels in order to bring their experiences back to the Lafayette community. During my Sophomore summer, I spent close to a month living with Đorđe Rakić ’15 in Belgrade, Serbia and traveled to Austria, Hungary, and Montenegro in order to learn more about the Baltic region’s history. The following winter, Đorđe traveled to New York City to stay with me and my family, during which we celebrated both a Pentecostal Christmas and an Orthodox Christmas. All of my experiences were blogged about here: http://voices.lafayette.edu/category/eddie-andujar/
  • Grossman House of Global Perspectives Scholar 2
    The Grossman House for Global Perspectives is an intimate community with a deep co-curricular anchor in globalization. As one of 25 Grossman citizens, I have designed and implemented academically focused programming with the support, guidance, and mentoring of faculty whose research and teaching address globalization. Such events have included dinner discussions with diverse home cooked meals, presentations on recent international events, co-sponsorships with a number of organizations across the campus community, and discussions with performers visiting the Williams Art Center.
  • Salsa Club 1
    After learning to salsa while studying abroad, I immediately jumped at the chance to keep practicing.

Community Service – Total Years Involved

  • Alternative School Break: Team Land of the Free 1
    In Santa Ana, El Salvador I learned about systemic poverty by taking a collaborative approach and understanding the issue at its source. We learned first hand the reality of how difficult it is for families to break the cycle. We worked with a responsible and socially aware local organization to construct homes for two families living within extreme poverty, and have remained committed to raising awareness on the issue even after returning from our trip.
  • Reach the World 1
    While studying in San José, Costa Rica, I aided high school students in developing the knowledge, attitudes, values, and thinking skills needed for responsible citizenship in a complex, culturally diverse, and rapidly changing world by blogging about my experience in Costa Rica and frequently video-conferencing directly into their classrooms.

Special Interest – Total Years Involved

  • Interim Course: Mexico Through the Centuries 1
    This opportunity allowed me to learn about Mexico’s history in relation to the present day. I roadtripped over 1,000 miles along the Mexican Southeast and explored the manner in which pre-Columbian traditions as well as Mexico’s colonial heritage and modern socioeconomic pressures are manifested in many of the nation’s present day attitudes and social customs.
  • Humanity in Action: Copenhagen 1
    During my Sophomore summer, I spent an entire month in Copenhagen, Denmark participating in an interdisciplinary fellowship that featured daily lectures and discussions with renowned academics, journalists, politicians, and activists, as well as site visits to government agencies, nonprofit and community organizations, museums, and memorials. The topics touched upon in the program ranged from wealth inequality in the United States to social justice and minority rights in Denmark. The program consisted of a group of international fellows from all academic backgrounds and from diverse racial, ethnic, class, and religious backgrounds. I spoke directly with government ministers on the details of their public policy initiatives and was to visit the exact social groups they affected in order to get a better sense of exactly how policy functions and who may be excluded from its impact.
  • Caravan for Democracy: Israel and Palestine 1
    During my Junior interim break, I discussed the challenges of achieving peace in the Middle East with Israeli and Palestinian politicians, diplomats, journalists, professors, and 29 other competitively selected student leaders from top-tier universities. We examined arguments from both sides of the political spectrum and analyzed the intricacies of foreign policy’s effect on the current political situation.
  • Study Abroad: Universidad Veritas, San José, Costa Rica 1
    During my Junior fall semester I lived with a Costa Rican family and underwent intensive Spanish instruction courses. I studied cross-cultural psychology, Afro-Latino history, and several Latin American independence movements within my course material. This experience gave me great insight into Central American history and identity, and uultimately led to my research of the Central American diaspora.
  • Study Abroad: Universidad de Sagrado Corazón, San Juan, Puerto Rico 1
    Although I was not fluent, I decided to take a necessary academic risk and placed myself directly in classes instructed completely in Spanish with local students in order to improve my Spanish language skills and to obtain a deeper sense of Puerto Rican culture and society. I studied Puerto Rico’s ambiguous relationship with the United States, reconnected with my family, and used my experiences as a starting point for my current honors thesis.
  • Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholar 1
    This nationally recognized grant from the U.S. State Department is awarded to high achieving students from non-traditional backgrounds that study abroad to non-traditional destinations in order to prepare them to assume significant roles in an increasingly globalized world.