Tania Flores

Tania Flores headshot

TANIA FLORES

Undergrad: Middlebury College
Major: Psychology and Education
Hometown: Gary, IN
Assistantship: Women's Center
Bio: While my Virgo sun would like to say that most of my life's trajectory has been based on calculated 5-year plans, the truth is that my moon lies in Aquarius and I am much more intuitive than I willingly admit. Every momentous choice I have made was set up by a work ethic prevalent amongst us children of immigrants, but the culminating decision itself is as subliminal as the generational folklore we carry with us.

All of this to say, I am both honored and perplexed at my enrollment at UConn's HESA program. This was not at all what I had planned, but as I write this during a most notorious Spring of 2020, life has shown us all that to plan too far ahead is never without oversight of the unknown inevitable. I have learned to, instead, define myself by the things I enjoy and who I am, as opposed to accolades and benchmarks primarily there for others' benefit. For example, revealing my adoration for flowers, equity, lore, and my heritage is significantly more consequential than outlining work I have completed at any given moment.

Pivoting towards practicality; I have spent all my adult life nurturing children in their growth and learning. It is through this experience, and my own (sometimes mis)guided journey towards self that I was made aware of the deep need for similar support amongst young adults in transitional spaces. In the book of life, it is in the lacuna where we must go and provide evidence that we the marginalized do exist, and aid all others like us to do the same. I look forward to encountering all this path may hold.