To Oscar Torres, the Alray Scholars Program is about commitment. When he went back to school in 2018, his mentor, Jamel Williamson, showed, early and often, how important the relationship was to him. The first time they met, mentor and mentee played basketball together. “I didn’t know he was like freakishly tall,” Torres said of his reaction to seeing Williamson on the court. The height difference didn’t stop them from playing together, Torres’ 5 ‘5 ” frame against Williamson’s 6’ 4” stature. “He should be in the NBA, you know, here he is as my mentor,” Torres said of Williamson. Throughout their partnership, the two would continue to play basketball, often frequenting the Cheesecake Factory and talking on the phone between games as well.
The support, energy, and encouragement Torres felt from his mentor helped him go back to school after he was academically suspended from UMass Boston when trying to switch majors. After high school, Torres wanted to go into a field that would help people. He chose medicine, but a chemistry course proved a formidable obstacle. “I realized that there are many ways that one can give back and so I decided to take communications courses,” Torres said about getting the opportunity to tell people’s stories.
In 2018, Torres started at Bunker Hill Community College where he studied communications and journalism. He even went to New York to shadow John Berman, a morning anchor at CNN, as part of an assignment for his Journalism course. “I got to see inside the studios and the control room,” Torres said of his visit. “I wanted to be in that anchor seat.”
Following the visit, he went on to Suffolk University and declared his bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism. He was able to report live on television as a Suffolk in the City reporter for NECN and saw how journalism can help by giving people and stories a voice.
After graduating from Suffolk, Torres worked for the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and currently he’s a communications coordinator at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Going forward, Torres is more interested in public health and is looking to transition more to that field.
And he remains involved in the Alray Scholars Program as part of the Alumni Council where he’s looking forward to helping current scholars and working with other graduates. “We get to hear each other’s perspective,” he said.
Now, as a graduate and volunteer with the Program, Torres sees the commitment he appreciated as a scholar throughout the Program. He remembers his first in-person event since before the pandemic in June 2022. “It was just great to see that, even though we haven’t seen each other in so long, and some of us have never even met, that we’re committed to… continuing giving out scholarships and connecting mentors with their mentees,” he said.
To future and current Alray scholars, Torres says they should believe in themselves. They got into the Program, afterall. “You are part of this family for a reason, you know. There are people who believe in you.” He hopes others use that to further their academic and professional confidence.
