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I stumbled upon Encendido, Tufts’ Latin Dance Team, at the club fair during orientation week. The club was very intriguing to me especially because of my desire to learn more Latin dance styles and further explore my Latin background. Aside from that, I was still pretty nervous to audition for the club, so my plan was to only show up to the general interest meeting to simply learn more about it and then maybe think about auditioning afterwards. I showed up to the space for the meeting, and to my surprise I was given a number and told this would be used for the audition video. I was thrown off by this and extremely nervous to put myself out there and do something I had no prior experience outside of social gatherings doing. Yet, I am extremely grateful that I had received that motivational push since Encendido has been one of the key places where I have made my closest friends on campus. 

I fell in love with the Encendido community right from our first practice. Through meeting other first-years from different backgrounds to then meeting new upperclassmen as well, we grew to become an extremely tight-knit dance team rapidly. Between our weekly practices and preparation for shows along with our monthly team bondings, we were able to frequently discuss and share about our personal lives and our unique cultural backgrounds. This really helped us become closer as the semester progressed. 

When the next semester began and we had a new wave of Encendido members join us, I got to meet and become very close friends with even more students on campus. This team has been one of my highlights of Tufts. It’s truly special to be able to find great friends on campus through extracurriculars like Encendido, meeting students from all over who share similar interests and can have a huge impact on your time throughout and beyond college.