Mónica Ocasio was one of the first members of the Her Campus chapter at Colegio. We asked her about her experience as a collegiette and how her undergrad experience as a Her Campus leader influenced where she is now. She provides a tell-all, straight from Austin, Texas where she’s getting her Master’s degree. This is her story:
1. How did you start at Her Campus? How was it being an editor, a writer and Campus Correspondent (CC)?
I wasn’t the one who had the idea initially. One day I was having coffee with Laura, our first CC, and she was telling me about the magazine and how La IUPI had a chapter, how it worked and everything. If I remember correctly, she told me she had filled-out an application to start a chapter in UPRM, and then she asked me if I was interested in becoming part of it. We met with three other girls, and that’s how it was born.
When I started being part of Her Campus, I was just editor and writer, but since we were such a small team, we all were doing all sorts of stuff. When the team became bigger, I approached Laura about my interest to help her as Co-CC. Having someone to share the correspondence with was great because we not only had to be “leaders,” but also had to work as pairs and negotiate. One of the things I loved about being CC and being part of this amazing group of women was reading them: watching the process of their writing and really seeing their personalities come through their writing. This also allowed me to improve on my own writing.
Being part of Her Campus, both as Campus Correspondent and writer, helped me in different ways. For instance, it gave me a great deal of leadership and public speaking skills. It also granted me the opportunity to grow as a writer because it gave me the platform to put my thoughts into words that were actually read.
2. What was your favorite thing from Her Campus?
I absolutely love that it gave me the opportunity to build strong friendships with my fellow collaborators. I also love the fact that I got to meet such amazing people from the UPRM community, people that I might not have met otherwise.
3. Biggest achievement: So far, earning my master’s degree after successfully defending my thesis, seriously the most stressful moment of my entire life.
4. Biggest goal: I wouldn’t call it the biggest goal, but earning my Ph.D. and be able to contribute to Puerto Rico’s higher education system with it.
5. Describe yourself in 4 words:
Determined, charismatic, funny, and sarcastic.
6. How’s life as a boricua, & woman of color in the US?
I think it depends on where you are. When I was living in College Park, Maryland, where there are not many Puerto Ricans, I would get a lot of questions about the country’s political situation. Every once in a while, when I went to a bar or a restaurant with other Puerto Ricans, people would stare either because we looked different or because we spoke Spanish. Now, living in Austin, Texas is another experience. Here, even though the city has a significant Mexican population, depending on where you go, people look at you strangely if you speak Spanish. Despite the large amount of Spanish speakers, Spanish is a sort of hidden language. In terms of skin color, I didn’t feel as different in Maryland as I do in Texas, because Maryland has a lot of racial diversity, from brown Latinos to Black African-Americans. In Texas, however, you can see white people and how they benefit from the established economic system over brown and darker-skinned communities.
As a brown-skinned Puerto Rican woman in the US, I find that because of my positionality and privilege as college graduate, I have to advocate for brown communities with whom I am sharing these experiences. Moving to the U.S. made me realize that race is a taboo topic in Puerto Rico and that just because we’re mixed ,doesn’t mean there’s no racism. This issue is one that has been discussed in Puerto Rican academic circles for some time now, but action remains to be seen in the public administration.
7. What motivates you?
Food, family, and friends.
8. What are you up to now?
I’m currently a PhD student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin.
9. Best/worst part of adulting?
Finances! In my case, wanting to live- also watching your friends live- a full grown up life, but having to live it under a grad student salary.
10. Something you confronted that no one’s prepared for yet should be:
Doing your taxes!
11. A piece of advice for the fresh-women at Colegio:
Support other young women, build relationships with people you genuinely like, and remember that -following Julia de Burgos verses- “tú misma eres tu ruta.”