Iridescent and Illuminated: One UConn Senior’s Journey to Graduation

She calls him ‘Loupa’, and he calls her ‘Star Child’.

And there is nothing in the universe that Genesis Rosario ’24 (CAHNR) wouldn’t do for Loupa – her grandfather, whose real name is Louis.

“I learned that family is important, no matter what you have,” she says.

Finding family has been a struggle for Rosario for most of her life. She has no relationship with her parents. She hasn’t seen her only sibling, a half-sister, in ten years.

Throughout her childhood, she bounced from place to place, usually around Hartford, sometimes elsewhere. She lived with her grandparents, who are now divorced. Or with cousins. Or with her godmother.

“I’ve always been a little bit displaced,” said Rosario, who now lives back with Loupa in Middletown and commutes to campus during her senior year after living in Storrs for the first three years of college.

“Before I lived with my grandpa, there were just a lot of family barriers that I went through, where it came down to, like, I don’t know if I should go to college. I don’t really have the support,” she says.

“But now I’m at the end of my four years and I can say that my way of thinking has changed so much.”

Clarifying

Rosario is many things at once.

She is a first-generation college student. An honors student. A McNair scholar. A Rowe scholar.

She majored in health sciences and is a health care peer advisor in UConn’s pre-med office.

She is a member of the UConn Community Services Days team and a hospice volunteer.

She is proud of her Puerto Rican, Dominican and Italian heritage.

And she is part of the LGBTQ community.

“I didn’t really understand my identity when I went to college,” she says. “I got mixed up with a whole group, but I figured it out and I’m proud of my identity.”

She graduated from New Britain High School and the school’s Health Academy was where she began pursuing opportunities in and around healthcare.

With medicine you not only learn to help others, but you can also critically analyze yourself

She started working as a lifeguard when she was 15 years old, teaching water safety to children and taking certified nursing assistant courses in high school. Her studies at the Health Academy took her on rotations to health clinics, introduced her to hospice care and made her understand that health care was much more than just treating diseases.

“With medicine, you not only learn to help others,” says Rosario, “but you can also critically analyze yourself and know where you come from.”

Due to her personal history, she initially thought about going into social work, but instead decided she wanted to become a doctor one day, specifically family medicine. In the community where she grew up, people don’t trust doctors, seek medical care, or have a lot of faith in the health care system.

She wants to help change that.

Her reason for choosing UConn over the other schools she was accepted to was practical: it was close to Loupa, who has been living with various medical conditions for some time.

“The only support from my family in Connecticut was really my grandfather, who was going to college. I really didn’t want to leave him,” she says. “I definitely didn’t think I could bear that if something happened to him. Because he has been my anchor throughout this entire process.”

Shift

After Rosario’s first year, something happened to Loupa: he became very ill.

Although she loved campus life and worked as a residential counselor in the Storrs dorms, she gave it up and moved back in with her grandfather to care for him.

The change was difficult at first.

But looking back on it now, she says the move opened doors she didn’t expect.

She interned at the Middletown Health Department. She completed EMT training and began working on gaining clinical experience. She began studying for the MCAT exam, a requirement for medical school admission that she hopes to one day complete.

The only support from my family in Connecticut was actually my grandfather, who was going to college – I really didn’t want to leave him

She threw herself into her erectile dysfunction research, which focuses on warning signs after birth for postpartum depression in women between the ages of 16 and 24.

She is working on her graduate school application – she is applying to UConn’s master’s program in public health, hoping to earn an MPH before attending medical school.

While taking Loupa to his medical appointments and helping him manage his health. And he has gotten better; his health has improved during the last few months of care.

“Every day he comes into the garage around 3 p.m. and watches his projection films,” she says. “Every time before I go into the house, I go into the garage, say hello and say, ‘I’m going to sit on the computer, type all night, I love you!’”

Iridescent

Rosario’s emotions burn as bright as the stars her grandfather nicknamed her for.

“I come from a place where in clinical settings in general I learned to separate your emotions from what you do,” she explains. “Will I cry behind closed doors? Yes.”

However, she does not like to focus on the negative aspects, or on the challenges she has had to overcome in life.

That’s one reason why Rosario exemplifies what higher education is all about, said Micah Heumann, the director of UConn’s Office of Undergraduate Research, who has become something of a mentor to Rosario over the past year.

“Genesis comes to UConn ready to explore and take advantage of as many opportunities as possible, and then looks for ways to give back to the UConn community,” Heumann said. “Genesis spends the time getting to know each person they come into contact with, asks questions and listens. She continues to overcome so many obstacles and yet always looks for joy in the world, in others and in herself.”

Once you find and remember who you are, it will outweigh all the negatives where you felt like you were alone

Rosario says she doesn’t want her story to become a sob story, but she hopes that by telling herself to another student, one who may also have felt displaced in life, who may have grown up in the inner city, or who may also be wondering whether he or she has done so. what it takes to make it in college may provide some inspiration.

“Looking back, these experiences helped me become who I am,” she says.

“Once you discover and remember who you are, it will outweigh all the negatives where you felt like you were alone, where you felt like people underestimated you and you didn’t know why, where you felt frustrated. It will surpass everything. The comparison will be nullified and you will be able to see yourself at the top in your own life.

Like many of this year’s graduating class, Rosario did not receive a traditional high school diploma in 2020 during the pandemic; it was instead a drive-through variety, in a parking lot and over two days. She couldn’t share it with her closest friends; their names were too far apart in the alphabet.

This year, when she graduates from UConn, she will finally be able to experience all the splendor she has worked for – and Loupa will be there to experience it too.

“I think that day will be very iridescent – ​​it will be very illuminated. Fluorescent, she says. “He’s going to see my eyes – I’m going to cry a lot, but they’re going to light up ten times.”