Norberto Orellana ’20 is a chemistry major from Miami. On campus, Orellana is the Vice President of Internal Affairs for CCSGA and is heavily involved with spiritual life. After graduating, he plans on attending theological seminary before eventually moving on to medical school. This week, The Catalyst sat down with Orellana to discuss his past and his time at Colorado College.
The Catalyst: What were the deciding factors that led you to Colorado College?
NORBERTO ORELLANA: Really, the surrounding area; I visited [Colorado College] with the “Tigers on a Quest” program, and I just really liked the area, the environment. I used to live in Denver back in 2005 to 2007, so I was familiar with Colorado. It was comfortable to me and an area that overall had good memories. It was definitely about the location. Also the Block Plan.
TC: In what ways do you think CC has changed the most since you first arrived here?
NO: I feel like, definitely the college has made great strides in diversity and inclusion. That’s been a big change on campus. I think, from a campus culture perspective, something that I perceive as just a little bit negative, politically the campus has become increasingly polarized. I think it’s a problem in general across college campuses and in our generation that there isn’t so much room for dialogue, it’s more of a “my way or the highway” sort of deal. So someone who comes in with political leanings to the right, they are often branded as something they’re not, and I feel like there hasn’t been enough room for having meaningful dialogues.
TC: How has your role in CCSGA impacted your experience at CC?
NO: It’s allowed me to see what the student body is capable of doing when they mobilize around a movement, and I’ve learned more about how the finances work behind how clubs are funded and programmed. From an internal perspective, since I’m internal affairs and I do the elections, [I’ve seen] the lack of student involvement in student government, so I’ve been trying to fix that.
TC: What is the greatest challenge you’ve had to overcome?
NO: There are a lot, haha. I feel like just getting to CC was pretty difficult in itself. I’m here as a QuestBridge Scholar, which is students on full-ride scholarships. Throughout high school, chronic homelessness was a problem, so moving from shelter to shelter or sometimes no shelter. And it’s difficult to maintain studies, especially when things are very digitalized, so access to internet was extremely important, as was transportation. I was dealing with all these things throughout high school. And I was also going to a unique high school at the time, where basically we all worked toward getting associate’s degrees upon graduation. I had to juggle all of that while applying to CC also, so I feel like that was definitely a big challenge. And I feel like when I got to CC, finding my place, like a support group, and not having that at first was definitely mentally taxing. I think that was definitely difficult: managing academics while also managing finding my place here and finding a group that’s supportive.
TC: Last year you spoke at the Colorado Springs TEDx Conference; what was that like?
NO: That was actualy my second TEDx event. Basically, they reached out to me because they saw that I had given the TED talk before. So I applied, auditioned, and was selected to talk. In that talk, I gave a very similar talk to the first one; the first TEDx talk was because I had been published in a local magazine, and that caught the eye of someone from TEDx Youth in Miami. So I was selected to speak at that. In both of those talks, I was talking about my life story and the homelessness and that journey of getting to CC, as well as my career aspirations. One half of that is becoming a pediatric orthopedic surgeon because I was born with cerebral palsy. I had a lot of surgeries, and they were all done by pediatric orthopedic surgeons. So since I was like four, my mind was set on that very specific career. And then, I gave a third talk here on campus, in which I dove into more recent events and how my spiritual life grew and how that basically encouraged me to pursue becoming a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church on top of becoming a surgeon.
TC: Do you think it is important to balance spiritual life with academic life? Why?
NO: I definitely think it is, whether it’s a belief in a higher being or belief in self — some sort of spirituality no matter where it’s centered — because I think it adds meaning to what we’re doing, whether it’s aspiring to the kingdom of heaven or aspiring to just be a good citizen and believing that you are having an impact far beyond just yourself. While some people can exist with a lack of that, I think it can be really taxing at times, especially during times of struggle because there’s no way to really rationalize things that are going on, things that happen. But when you put in that spiritual aspect, all of a sudden it becomes more of a reason and more of an understanding as to why things happen and what the path forward should be.
TC: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
NO: In 10 years, I see myself probably as an ordained priest in the Orthodox Church, probably finishing up medical school. Probably have a family by then, I’m currently engaged. Probably be a deacon or a priest; seminary is the first thing that I’ll be doing after CC. It’s a three-year program, and coming out of that I may or may not be ordained at that point. I’ll be getting a master’s in divinity and then going to medical school. So 10 years from now, probably in residency at that point.
TC: If you had to change your major from chemistry, what field of study would you choose?
NO: Probably political science. I really enjoy politics and the study of why nations and entities make the decisions that they do and all the reasoning that goes into that. It really enlightens you to understand why, like, Trump makes the decisions he makes. He wants to be a pragmatic realist, whereas Obama was more of a liberal in political theory, though he became a realist at the end of his presidency. And I think, [political science] lets you understand why decisions are being made the way they are, the rationale. And beyond that, I’m interested in politics in general. A secondary career path for me, if other things failed, would be to go into politics.
TC: Who has been your favorite professor at CC?
NO: There’s like three that come to mind. I’ve had really great professors here. It would have to be either Andrew Price Smith in the political science department or Dan Miska in HBK. Both are really great professors; they care and are really devoted to making the learning experience both challenging and interesting. With APS, for example, I took Conduct of American Foreign Policy, and at the end of the class we did a sort of mock UN simulation with North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, and the United States. That was a really fun way to use our knowledge and to also demonstrate how difficult diplomacy can be. And then with Dan Miska, I took Human Physiology with him. He’s an overall really funny professor, lots of jokes, and you could tell he was passionate about the subject. It was probably one of the most enjoyable classes I’ve ever taken here.
TC: If you were to write an autobiography, what would the title be and why?
NO: I have actually been slowly drafting an autobiography. But titles, I’ve had multiple titles in my mind. I think the title that is currently at the top of my list is “Something Bigger.” I think that reflects my own spiritual journey and my belief in general, since as long as I can remember, that what I do and the things that I struggle for and strive for are far beyond me. And I think that all connects to my journey to becoming Eastern Orthodox. But yeah, believing in something higher and that I’m really working towards something bigger in the end. I don’t remember who in the Orthodox Church, but he said when he first visited an Orthodox church — and I had a very similar feeling — that when he went in, it was something bigger than him, and that the service wasn’t about him … I think that’s certainly the experience I had entering the Orthodox Church. And now I’m just really living my life with the creed that what I do and the reasons I struggle are because there is something bigger to aspire to.