Jeans M. Santana,’10, was the center of attention when he was chosen as the 2009 Oscar Romero Scholarship winner. (Photo by Suzanne Camarata)
Family Experience Inspires Med Career Plans
Jeans M. Santana,’10, named the 17th annual Archbishop Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award winner
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Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the Bronx, Jeans M. Santana,’10, says challenges have always been a part of his life. He used football and track to keep him off the streets and made a point of putting in extra time at the library to earn good grades.
So it’s taken a little while for Santana to get used to being named the 17th annual Archbishop Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award winner. Days after University President William P. Leahy, SJ, called his name and offered congratulations at the March 28 ceremony in the Yawkey Center, Santana still has a hard time absorbing the fact that it all happened.
“It still hasn’t hit me yet,” says Santana. “It is an honor to be awarded a scholarship in Archbishop Romero’s name. He acted to establish change amid social injustice. He worked to make things better.”
The Romero Scholarship is given annually to a student who demonstrates an outstanding record of involvement in service to the Hispanic and Latino community. It is named for Oscar A. Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador, who worked for the poor and the oppressed of his country until his 1980 assassination during the country’s civil war.
Stephanie Andujar,’10, and Gloria Mercedes Villanueva,’10, were the other scholarship finalists.
Santana is majoring in sociology and is in the pre-med program, a vocation he has pursued after watching his grandmother fight breast cancer when he was a sophomore in high school.
“My mom was able to get her a visa for treatment here in the US,” recalls Santana. “Taking in the whole situation, being hospitalized, going through chemo treatments, going through the pain...it all set up my interest. I want to go to medical school, I want to become an oncologist.”
Last summer, Santana worked at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute CURE program, where he coordinated and implemented a campaign to raise awareness of HPV in the Latino community. He plans to return to Dana Farber this year to focus on wet lab research.
Santana said the two most influential people in his life have been his mother, Orquidea Hierro, and Matt Knaure, a fellow Cardinal Hayes High School graduate who sponsored Santana’s high school education.
“My mother’s the only one on my grandmother’s side who’s here in the United States. So much of her time, so much of her energy goes into not only making sure food is on the table for us, but also funding our family at home because they’re not in the best economic state.
“Seeing that while growing up, it’s where I get my drive. She helped me aspire to be more.”
While at Boston College, Santana has been a member of the Organization of Latin American Affairs (OLAA), the AHANA Leadership Council, AHANA Volunteer Corps and participated in the OLAA Culture Show. He has volunteered on service trips with the Turkey Creek Initiative to Mississippi and led the BC service immersion trip to the Dominican Republic.
Melissa Beecher can be reached at melissa.beecher.1@bc.edu