Acevedo Makes and Impact on Bluefield College

Dagoberto (Dago) De Jesus Acevedo is a senior communication major at Bluefield College who has been having a positive impact on Bluefield College and the student body since becoming a BC student in the fall of 2015.

Acevedo was born in Cojutepeque, El Salvador, but his family moved to Washington, DC, in 2004 after applying for political asylum. Before coming to Bluefield College, he was accepted to nine different schools, including some major art schools.

“I believed I wanted to major in the arts, but eventually found my passion for communication and politics during my time at BC,” said Acevedo. “What brought me (to Bluefield) was the desire to be away from home and financial purposes. It was a major shift, though, especially emotionally, transitioning from a city to a country setting in southwest Virginia.”

Acevedo is not only a communication major, but also has a concentration in politics with additional experience in public policy from a semester of study in Washington, DC, as an American studies program scholar on Capitol Hill. There, Acevedo said he learned immigration policy, particularly issues related to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Merida Initiative.

Also while studying off-campus and living in DC, Acevdeo was a Speakers Bureau intern for Active Minds, a strategic communications intern for Conover and Gould Strategy Group, and a marketing intern and ambassador for Banana Republic.

His impact on the campus of Bluefield College has come while serving in leadership roles for many clubs. In fact, he created the first Mental Health Club on campus and has pushed for more mental health awareness for students at Bluefield College. In addition, Acevedo has served as a public relations intern for BC’s Office of Marketing and Public Relations, a business development intern for the BC Department of Business, and a governmental affairs intern for the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce.

“I have served as student body president (served on Student Government a total of three years), Student Ambassadors president (served as an Ambassador for three years before becoming president), Rotaract Club member, STAT (Students Today Alumni Tomorrow) member for a semester, Art Club member my first year only, and I founded the first mental health organization called Active Minds,” said Acevedo.

Acevedo will graduate this fall. He has applied to graduate school at several different institutions, some of which are abroad and others in the Eastern United States.