Life After New Paltz: LGBTQ+ Alumni Offer Advice 

On March 27, New Paltz students gathered in the Honors Center for “Out in the World” — a talk with alumni about life after New Paltz. At the event, graduate students Jaci Yong and Veronica Zapata facilitated a conversation between four LGBTQ+ alumni about their experiences living and working as queer people. 

“It is our hope that through events like this one, students will be able to relate to our panelists’ experiences and learn from their stories,” said Senior Career Specialist Key Bergin, who helped organize the event. 

“We want this event to be both frank and a source of hope. We want to share not just the struggles, but also the victories because they do exist,” Zapata said in an email.

Though the Career Resource Center and LGBTQ+ coordinator have organized similar events in the past, none have been exactly like this one. Zapata hopes that “Out in the World” will become an annual event because “representation matters.” 

The four alumni panelists, James Baptiste, Petra Vega, Cesario Tirado-Ortiz and Nate Brogan began the conversation by sharing joys and challenges from their careers. 

Though the four of them have had many career successes — from hosting a radio show at Radio Kingston to writing a queer horror play that will premiere in New York in June — they have also had challenges, many of which were centered around their intersectional identities. 

Vega discussed her struggle to reassure herself that her voice matters. As a Black, queer and autistic person, she said it can be difficult to convince people that she is worth listening to. 

Tirado-Ortiz, a queer Latino performer and playwright, said that when auditioning for roles, they have been told that they aren’t “the right demographic” for the role. Writing their own plays has been a way for Tirado-Ortiz to create roles that represent them. 

When asked what advice they has for current students, the panelists encouraged experimenting with ideas instead of fearing failure, and grounding in the present moment rather than obsessing over the future. Tirado-Ortiz told aspiring artists that they should surround themselves with people who are honest with them about their work and remember that “your art is allowed to be bad at first.”

The panelists also emphasized the importance of setting aside time for self-care, in whatever form that might take. While Baptiste’s self-care means spending time with his houseplants, Vega’s self-care included setting boundaries and Brogan’s meant journaling. 

“It’s really important to know what your needs are,” said Baptiste. “Only you know what will take care of you.” 

After the panel, students and alumni sat together in groups talking about what a more equitable future would look like between bites of catered tacos. 

“New Paltz is a bubble. It’s an incredibly accepting campus that actively advocates for the LGBTQ+ community, but once we graduate, we step into a world that might not always reflect those same values,” Zapata said. “That’s why we need these conversations.”