By David Nathan

He missed his family and friends in South Florida, struggled in a class required for his major, and could not seem to reach his potential on the basketball court.

And yet Angel Reyes ’21 G’23 never thought of leaving Lasell, and he says now he would do it all over again “10 out of 10 times.”

With help from a highly engaged support system — men’s basketball coach Aaron Galletta; academic advisor Heather Flaherty; his mom, Yamila; and his teammates — Reyes overcame his social, academic, and athletic challenges to become the first member of his family to graduate from college.

“I have always been studious and intellectually curious, but I wasn’t sure how to navigate the college arena,” he says of his early days at Lasell. “I was out of my element.”

The lessons the 25-year-old Cuban-American learned at Lasell about perseverance, self-confidence, and time management resonate in his role as an associate wealth planner at Citizens Wealth Management. Reyes frequently recalls his experiences and shares advice with current Lasell students and Boston-area youth.

“Things are never going to be easy and exactly the way you want them to be, but you have to continue to grind it out,” he says. “You just have to get back on the horse no matter how many times you get knocked off.”

Reyes’ struggles with his required Anatomy and Physiology course prompted him to switch his major from exercise science to psychology. He landed a summer internship at Phillip Brooks House Association, a local human service agency, and later worked as a senior counselor and director at the organization’s summer camp. He switched his focus from nonprofits to the corporate world in 2022 when he joined Bank of America as a financial center assistant manager and began pursuing his MBA at Lasell. He joined Citizens in 2024.

Reyes was named to last year’s Amplify LatinX ALX100, a list of 100 of the brightest Latinx leaders in Massachusetts.

“A lot of my values come from my upbringing and community,” says Reyes, who is active with the Association of Latino Professionals for America. “Even if I didn’t have much, I wanted to uplift others. I want everyone to have the opportunities that I have had.”