Senior Snapshot: Francelis Morillo Suarez Appreciates the Value of Flexibility
夏天在她的第一年在Wellesley，Francelis Morillo Suarez'21汇集了她的四年参加学院计划：她将在（环境研究和意大利研究）中占主教。当她会在国外留学（她的初级年）和多长时间（一个学期）。她对传入学生的建议 - 比这更灵活！
Morillo Suarez ended up veering from her four-year plan, deciding to study abroad for two semesters rather than one. She said it was “a pretty big shift, and it took some planning and petitioning, but I’m really glad I did it.” Of course, the ultimate teacher of flexibility was the global pandemic that cut short her second trip. After spending the fall of her junior year in Bologna, Italy, she was in Morocco for the spring semester when she learned she would need to return to the U.S. She hasn’t been on campus since her sophomore year, and now she is about to graduate remotely.
Morillo Suarez, an environmental studies and Italian studies double major, lives in Lawrence, Mass., not far from Wellesley. She opted to study from home this year so that she could be with her 11-year-old brother, who is also attending school remotely.
Though she isn’t on campus, she stays connected with the community in a variety of ways, from texting and video chatting with her friends to participating in the upcomingRuhlman Conferenceand keeping in touch with her cohort in theMcNair Scholars Program, which she credits with helping her become a better scholar and researcher.
“Going into Wellesley, I didn’t really know what research was … I didn’t really see myself as someone who would do that or was never in a space where I was encouraged to do research,” she said. When she learned of the McNair program, which prepares historically underrepresented students to enter graduate school, she decided to apply.
“I feel like wherever I end up working I’m going to try my best to make it so that environmental justice is a part of it.”
Francelis Morillo Suarez ’21
“The program, for me, was a way into a new space,” she said. Most of her experience with the McNair program has been remote, through panels and conversations, but she said it’s been an important part of her Wellesley journey. “It’s an amazing community of people to be a part of and I’ve learned so much,” she said.
Morillo Suarez打算去研究生院，但她在Wellesley的立即计划是开始实习，她通过了清洁能源领导学院. “I haven’t had the chance to learn much about the clean energy sector,” she said. “I thought, this is the best time, early on in my career, to be able to do that.”
Morillo Suarez在Wellesley赢得了可持续性证书;包括Babson和Olin Colleges的计划教授她关于可持续发展 - 经济可行性，环境保护和社会股权的三大支柱 - 以及如何与其他学科的学生合作，如工程和业务。“我认为这对我来说真的很重要，因为一项环境研究专业，因为一旦我走进去那样，我会更好地在合作和理解别人来自的地方，”她说。
由于棕色大学的高中夏季计划，Morillo Suarez对环境正义特别感兴趣，在那里她学会了environmental justice communities; later, she discovered that she came from one. Her hope is to find work that combines her interests in climate resilience and environmental justice. “I feel like wherever I end up working I’m going to try my best to make it so that environmental justice is a part of it,” she said.
Morillo Suarez说，完成她的最后学期校园感觉苦乐参半。She lives close enough that she’ll be able to stop by to say hello to professors and students once visitors are permitted again, but she hasn’t seen many of her friends in person in a long time, and as a first-generation student, she was looking forward to having her family cheer as she accepted her diploma. “Instead, I will be able to graduate at home with my mother right beside me and will celebrate with my immediate family and with the majority of my extended family—who we will most definitely video call—who live in the Dominican Republic,” she said.
Though completing her senior year remotely was challenging, and she wasn’t a fan of the shortened term system, Morillo Suarez said, “Overall, I still learned a lot … the pivot Wellesley made, I feel, was done very well.”
