Have You Met Rutgers-Newark?

Christian’s route to R-N was a circuitous one, but he’s glad he made the journey. “I’m proud to be a student here,” Christian says, relating how he did a lot of research before selecting R-N and “was really impressed” by the school’s academic programs as well as its affordability and locale. Once he started classes, it was the journalism program and its coordinator, Robin Gaby Fisher, who earned his admiration.

Christian’s winding journey began in his native Peru, with stops in Queens and Long Island, N.Y., where he thrived on the challenges of learning English, working as a lifeguard and swimming on his high school team as well as getting excellent grades. He detoured for four years of service in the U.S. Marines where he deployed overseas numerous times before an injury ended his military career.

His next port of call: New Jersey, first earning an associate’s degree in broadcasting at a community college, and now working on his B.A. in journalism at R-N. Christian also is editor-in-chief of the student paper, The Observer.

“I thought getting my B.A. here would be a challenge, I wanted the challenge, and I am being challenged,” he says. Rising to those challenges agrees with his admittedly competitive nature, which impacts everything from his swimming to his military career to school and even his part-time job as a bartender.

That nature will probably come in handy as he pursues his ultimate career goal: broadcast news, preferably at a Spanish-language network.