“I applied because I’m a first-generation college student who wanted to go to graduate school, and I knew that Doris Duke helped to get underrepresented students into research,” he says. “It has been a great opportunity to collaborate with scholars who have similar interests in environmental justice and conservation, and in particular people of color who have historically been left out of these fields.”

Professionally, the program helped him develop a network among those in his cohort and develop critical skills through workshops like resume writing and interview practice. He also spent a summer interning with the Urban Ecology Wellness Center in Hartford, Connecticut, where he built and managed in-person programs for local community members.

Doris Duke also helped Velazquez academically, bolstering his research and writing skills and funding him for a summer-long research project on the social justice implications of green infrastructure projects in Western Michigan. “Throughout this research with Doris Duke, and in my own undergraduate thesis, I knew that I would always have support,” he says. “I was aware that programs like this could be kind of cutthroat once inside, but Doris Duke was, from start to finish, very collaborative, which I appreciate.”

Though Velazquez is considering the possibility of a PhD, his greatest focus is on the two years before him — two years of study at YSE under the tutelage of Dr. Taylor, with whom he hopes to examine environmental justice issues in the Puerto Rican diaspora.