Alan De Leon

Alan was captain of his school's Academic Decathlon Team, Debate Team, Model United Nations Team, and Chess Team. He was chosen as Student of Year for the past two years, and has spent time volunteering for the National Hispanic Institute and at the Special Olympics. He enjoys bowling, playing the tenor saxophone, practicing meditation, and reading literature. He is very passionate about engaging in and learning about new languages and cultures, and giving his time to social service work.

Five Things I Learned in Brazil

Alan De Leon

2013-04-23

I am now presenting a reflection of things I did not know until I began living here in Brazil. So! Here it is: 1. Exotic Fruits The next time you walk into an American supermarket, notice all the different fruits they have to offer. It may seem like a lot. The truth is that those stores carry but a...

Soon

Alan De Leon

2013-04-08

By the time you read this blog post, I will have already left my home community in Bahia, Brazil. I spent many months of my life there. To be truthful, I am finding it difficult to convince myself that I even did that: I left my city, my state, my country, and left the North...

The Meaning of Being Trilingual

Alan De Leon

2013-02-26

In the beginning of my elementary schooling, the only language I knew how to speak was Spanish. As a Mexican-American, it is my native tongue; English is my second language. I started reading books in English when I was in Kindergarten, even though I didn’t know what the words meant. So I guess that means that I was not...

The Difference Between Man and Wolf

Alan De Leon

2013-01-09

During the weekdays, I make a regular 30 minute walk to my apprenticeship organization’s headquarters. Back in Houston a similar trek would have been largely annoying – my car courts my laziness. I get a kick out of HQ every time I see it. It is an odd structure by common architectural standards: the outer...

Assimilating Myself

Alan De Leon

2012-10-01

Allow me to offer just a general outline of what my two weeks in California after Fall Training was like (in chronological order): Stayed at Stanford University one extra day. Went to Lake Tahoe in California for three days immediately after. It is located in the middle of a forest that kisses the Sierra Mountains....

“One more week” on repeat

Alan De Leon

2012-09-13

As I am typing this, I am laying on a couch-bed hybrid in a hostel in the heart of the University of California, Berkeley. Indeed, I am in Berkeley, California right now – not Salvador, Brazil. I am finding it very difficult to distinguish a starting point on how I could possibly begin to explain...

Dreams of Forever Being a Kid

Alan De Leon

2012-07-27

For as long as I can remember, I have been abused with the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It is a common query, sure, but it is also one that fails to suffice my qualifications for a question that can thoroughly entice my interests. Inquiry that gives definition to...