Student Scholar Finds Her Way at Regis

Ebeny_TDuring high school, Ebeny Jazelle Torres debated delaying college so she could take time to save money; but her mother said it was out of the question. 

“I had seen how people I know had struggled to pay or accrued large amounts of debt, and I didn’t want to put my mother in that position,” she recalls. “I began working with a mentor [high school teacher John Amberg] to learn all that I could about my options.”

It turns out that Mom (“my greatest support”) knows best. As Torres began exploring schools, she was introduced to Regis by her mentor’s wife and Regis alumna Kathleen McKeon ’91. 

The university had what Torres was looking for: a liberal arts education; a campus close to the city but quiet enough to focus and enjoy New England’s serene beauty; a community where people knew her name and cared about her future—and, the financial support to attend.

The first professor she met during a visit to a mock class was Ernest Collamati, PhD, who did more than learn her name. “The way that he taught class blew my mind,” Torres says. “He made the lesson interesting and made me want to learn more even after I left.” 

She left only to return to Regis as a student, with the help of various scholarships. And she arrived with a commitment to prove herself right, having received support from not only her mother and mentor, but by donors she hadn’t even met.  

“I work as hard as I can to put myself in the best position I can to make scholarship donors proud, and to make Regis proud.”

While studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, fall semester 2016, Torres further developed a love for her native Spanish language and decided to incorporate it into a career in communications. (“I want to be able to communicate to all different kinds of people in different demographics.”) She also participated in a spring break solidarity trip to Villa El Salvador, Peru; as an ERAT Scholar, she traveled on an “eye opening trip” to Europe—including Italy, Ireland, Austria, and Switzerland.

“I wondered how a regular girl from New Jersey could end up experiencing all of these new cultures,” she says of the experiences.

Only Torres is no “regular girl.” She is a Regis student who is uncovering her talents, a young woman who is committed to hard work, taking on challenges, and proving that—at Regis—opportunities and dreams are within reach.