Senior Snapshots: An unusual character

Wesley Saavedra, A&S '06, has an impulse he cannot suppress. If he has never done something before, he will do it. If he isn't familiar with something, he will research it. If no one has done it before, he will carve his own path. This implacable itch to embrace challenging, new things and diversify his interests comes naturally to him.

The philosophy major has experienced a fair share of transformation in the past four years: "I went from a practicing Ninjutsu, to sewing my own clothes, to being a vegan, to being an exercise nut, to jumping deep into every type of philosophy you can imagine, to studying business, to spending a summer on a farm in Cape Cod," he says. Wesley insists that this eclecticism satiates his appetite to sample fresh opportunities. "I constantly reinvent myself," says the former treasurer of Naked Singularity and researcher for the NAACP Education Committee.

Describing himself as "scholastic, encyclopedic, and random," Saavedra says that the highlight of his BC experience was the excitement and endless possibilities of his first semester freshman year. "I know most people find that a bizarre time, but I had made some really good friends and learned a lot of philosophies," he says.

Saavedra praised professors Rhonda Frederick, Devonya Havis, Davarian Baldwin, Brian Braman, and Stephen Schloesser for shaping him as person and mentoring him through college. "I can't ignore the academics and professors who plucked me out and took care of me," he says. "I have professors that look out after me and yell at me 'keep on your toes Wesley, keep working, get to work.'"

His sweeping range of interests has ensconced him in a diverse group of friends. "A lot of people tend to be drawn to me because I'm diverse in my experiences and my way of thinking, and yet all of my friends have something that I can simultaneously relate to," he says. Saavedra said that his inner circle of friends has inspired personal growth, development, and self-reflection. "My friends have dragged out a lot of things that I didn't know I had in me," he says. "I built a family here, and I didn't think that was something I was able to do."

He said his eccentric character puts him at odds with the rest of the community. "I think the biggest challenge for me is not letting the majority get me down and finding and making my own personal space to have a comfortable breathing room," he says. "It's tough being the unusual character, but I fought. I fought to not getting stereotyped into this type of guy," he says. "I always tried to resist doing what's easy and instead do what I want to do no matter how many people laughed."

Saavedra is recognized among faculty for his innovative academic projects. As a McNair Scholar, he is developing an extensive thesis on what he calls the "Ecology of Blackness."

"The premise is that those united in suffering the wages of an Enlightenment creation - known as a racial capitalism - offer a critique of our modern relationship between humans and the planet," he says. "I intend to find that and bring it to bear in the current environmentalist dialogue." He has also written a well-received assessment of Eco-Marxism using religious paradigms of the world.

Saavedra, who will begin working toward his doctorate degree in the Philosophy, Interpretation, and Culture Program at SUNY-Binghamton, has two caveats of advice for incoming freshmen:"Get to know a professor, and be open about choosing your friends and activities. It's more important to invent yourself than define yourself."