{"id":27042,"date":"2023-09-15T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=27042"},"modified":"2023-09-20T16:04:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T20:04:20","slug":"hispanic-heritage-month-angel-sarmiento","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/hispanic-heritage-month-angel-sarmiento\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna connects with next generation of Hispanic students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hispanic Heritage Month at Furman<\/a>
\nRead more stories >><\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

As a student, Angel Sarmiento \u201923 was an admissions<\/a> ambassador and member of Mosaic<\/a>, a group of students dedicated to creating a more diverse and inclusive student body by sharing their Furman experiences with high schoolers.<\/p>\n

As an alumna, reaching out to prospective students is now her full-time job. This fall, she and her fellow admissions counselors will spend several weeks traveling to different territories throughout the United States to visit high schoolers who are deciding on a college. For Sarmiento, that means a return to Florida, where she and her mother first lived after leaving Caracas, Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom brought me over as a baby,\u201d Sarmiento said. \u201cVenezuela was really crime-ridden and corrupt, so she wanted to get out of there, and her sister had already come over to Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family moved north when Sarmiento\u2019s stepfather found an engineering job in the Greenville, South Carolina, area. \u201cOverall, it just seemed like a much better place,\u201d said Sarmiento. \u201cLots more green space and public parks and community engagement, very different from the Miami city hustle-bustle. Everything just felt safer \u2013 I was allowed to go over to friends\u2019 houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Make your own community\u2019<\/h3>\n

After middle school and high school in Greenville County, Sarmiento came to understand how challenging a college search can be for a student who lacks resources or doesn\u2019t even know what help is available.<\/p>\n

\"\"

From left: Angel Sarmiento \u201923 and fellow student orientation leaders Russell Richards \u201924 and Delilah Evelyn \u201923 in Fall 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a big part of why I\u2019m enjoying my position as an admissions counselor, just to be that point of reference to help families not only understand Furman but also understand what the college admissions process is like,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Furman was nearby and familiar \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s so close, it\u2019s a great institution, it\u2019s so beautiful; it was a no-brainer,\u201d Sarmiento said \u2013 but there was still a bit of culture shock in store for the first-year student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize Furman was so predominantly white until I got to campus,\u201d said Sarmiento, who was awarded a Rinker Study Away Scholarship in 2021. \u201cGoing through fall orientation, I didn\u2019t necessarily click with anyone right away \u2013 which I know now is totally normal. But in the moment, I was thinking, \u2018Oh, my gosh, I\u2019m already failing at this whole college thing.\u2019 But you just have to make your own community and be intentional about reaching out to people who you think might have similar experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

She soon got busy with her double major in psychology<\/a> and sociology<\/a>, her work in the admissions office<\/a> and the James B. Duke Library, and her duties as an orientation leader. In her senior year, she won the David Redburn Award<\/a> in sociology and Furman\u2019s Hall of Leaders Award<\/a> for Excellence in Service and Leadership before graduating magna cum laude.<\/a><\/p>\n

New opportunities, new experiences<\/h3>\n

As Furman begins its celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, Sarmiento is happy to see her alma mater \u2013 and current employer \u2013 continuing to work toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion<\/a>. Observances like this are an opportunity to \u201crealize the value that comes from the different perspectives and different cultures that are at play here,\u201d she said. \u201cI would encourage people to try those new experiences, whether that be food, music or dance. There are so many beautiful things that I grew up with but that others might not know and get a lot of joy out of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her admissions counselor job during this gap year after graduation won\u2019t be permanent, but she plans to continue in the higher education field, perhaps pursuing a master\u2019s in education.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to help those families and those students take advantage of their time in college has really spoken to me, and I want to pursue that,\u201d she said. \u201cOne way I keep ties to my heritage is by reaching out to Hispanic students and saying, \u2018I came out on the other side of this, and I\u2019m here to tell you to take advantage of all these opportunities.\u2019 It\u2019s my way of giving back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born in Venezuela, admissions counselor Angel Sarmiento \u201923 found Furman as a place to make her own community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":27684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3,70,48,22],"tags":[1120],"class_list":["post-27042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admission","category-alumni","category-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","category-psychology","category-sociology","tag-hispanic-heritage-month"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}