Hillary Alejo helps our students walk through some of life’s most difficult challenges: family and relationship issues, legal difficulties, medical diagnoses, and even the loss of a family member. A licensed clinical social worker in Counseling Services for almost five years, she provides individual counseling, facilitates a therapy group for students living with chronic medical conditions and disabilities, and helps those who arrive at the student health center in crisis. The colleague who nominated Alejo says this Aggie’s experience as the first in her family to go to college and her fluency in Spanish and English are especially helpful to students of color.

A wife and mother of four, Alejo knows the practical and emotional stressors of living with a chronic mental health condition in her family — even as she cares for students. But she feels it contributes to what she does. “I say to my loved one, ‘You helped more people today.’”