{"id":269707,"date":"2026-05-13T17:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269707\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T17:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:30:11","slug":"jacksonville-native-alex-monteagudo-fathoms-his-bright-college-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269707\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville native Alex Monteagudo fathoms his bright college years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The young man walked along a once-familiar road with his sister on a sunny spring afternoon. Palmetto trees were along their right; trailers stood on their left.<\/p>\n

Prayers and perseverance have fueled Alex Monteagudo from a Phillips Highway trailer to the pinnacle of academia to the depths of oceans. Monteagudo will earn a degree in economics and political science from Yale when the Ivy League institution celebrates its 325th Commencement on Monday.<\/p>\n

Next week, Monteagudo will also be commissioned as a submarine warfare officer in the U.S. Navy. He will be stationed at Joint Base Charleston.<\/p>\n

While many in New Haven look back at their four years in Connecticut, Monteagudo cannot resist remembering those who helped him on his journey to take the road less traveled by, one that has made all the difference in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of forced reflection with senior year. I have to think about it,\u201d Monteagudo says. \u201cI don\u2019t think about the four years. I think about high school, middle school and all the years with my family. I\u2019m proud, mostly because of my parents. Because they were able to tough it out, I wouldn\u2019t be able to stand like I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Duval Schools to Ivy League<\/p>\n

Monteagudo says longtime Stanton College Prep educator Brian Heggood made the advanced placement microeconomics course he taught in the spring 2022 semester fascinating enough that he wanted to pursue it in college.<\/p>\n

Monteagudo learned about the humanity of all from a Holocaust survivor he met while a middle school student<\/a> at Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts.<\/p>\n

He says learning Spanish at home and speaking it at school was initially a challenge. But, it allowed him to connect with other dual-language students, and serve as a Spanish translator at San Jose Elementary.<\/p>\n

Austin Burleigh taught Monteagudo at Stanton. He recalled Alex as a high-performing student who was focused and scrappy with a sense of humor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me hope that the American dream is still alive in some capacity,\u201d Burleigh says. \u201cFor all the grim news, and signs of decline, it\u2019s uplifting and improves morale. It makes me proud that we have the infrastructure in place for someone like Alex to succeed, advance, end up at Yale and become a commissioned officer. (Alex) was clearly raised right. His parents instilled values in him. He has the family, the focus, the work ethic and respects himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex\u2019s smile and surname came flooding back to Burleigh when Leslie Monteagudo was enrolled in his home room class this academic year. Leslie is a senior who will graduate from Stanton College Prep this month with a 4.3 weighted grade-point average.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Monteagudo siblings, Leslie and Alex, recalled racing children on their bicycles in their former Southside neighborhood. This spring Alex will graduate from Yale while Leslie will graduate from Stanton College Prep. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

Returning to their roots this spring, while her brother was in Jacksonville for spring break, allowed the Monteagudo siblings to walk through their old neighborhood. They mentioned playing soccer in the street, the children in the community and the adults who looked out for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely feels very emotional, if I think about it too hard, because it\u2019s just the fact that my brother is about to graduate college and he\u2019s going to be off in the Navy,\u201d Leslie said in March. \u201cI\u2019m also planning to go to college. Knowing that this is, likely, one of the last times that we\u2019ll be together and be able to reminisce on our childhood, it\u2019s definitely emotional \u2014 for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex forged a road to higher education that Leslie will soon follow. The two are the first in their family to attend college in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt my high school graduation, I was crying my face off,\u201d Alex recalled. \u201cMy (older) brother never made it through high school. My parents didn\u2019t go to college. Finishing high school is what my parents expected. Graduating college? This degree. It doesn\u2019t seem real. Anytime I think about it, I cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex\u2019s initial dream was to attend the University of Florida. When he heard Stanton classmates mention their desire to attend Ivy League schools, he applied as well. Today, Monteagudo believes his volunteerism, and his self-described underprivileged background, are what convinced Yale to admit him.<\/p>\n

New adventures in New Haven<\/p>\n

Monteagudo considered a career in immigration law. Along the way, he pivoted toward military service.<\/p>\n

In mid-2023, Monteagudo applied to join Yale\u2019s nationally recognized Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps<\/a>. He was accepted, three semesters after most midshipmen join the ROTC program. From the outset, he showcased uncommon leadership.<\/p>\n

\"AlexAlex Monteagudo will receive a commission to the U.S. Navy after he earns his degree in economics and political science from Yale University on Monday, May 18, 2026. | Contributed, Yale Navy ROTC<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a squad leader when he first joined,\u201d fellow Midshipman Andrew Terkildsen recalled. \u201cI went to his dorm room for his first inspection. I tossed out, \u2018Do you know any of the military knowledge?\u2019 He says, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ve looked into it.\u2019 He nailed it off the rip. He poured everything into the program and locked in from Day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terkildsen is a midshipman from Middle America. Multiple generations of his family were military officers. Terkildsen knew he wanted to join that tradition long before he enrolled at Yale.<\/p>\n

Terkildsen explains that most ROTC training takes place before 7 a.m. to accommodate a Yale schedule where classes are in the late morning and early afternoon. It\u2019s not uncommon for professors to hold office hours in the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is one of the most humble people you will ever meet,\u201d Terkildsen says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to get any bragging out of him. He\u2019s earned it. He could if he wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Monteagudo\u2019s case, the bragging is done on his behalf. This spring, he earned Yale\u2019s Rear Adm. Frederick B. Warder Award. Every Navy ROTC program across America recognizes one graduating senior with the Warder Award in recognition of a future submarine officer who has displayed outstanding achievement and superior sustained performance.<\/p>\n

\"AlexAlex Monteagudo will receive a commission to the U.S. Navy after he earns his degree in economics and political science from Yale University on May 18, 2026. | Contributed, Yale Navy ROTC<\/p>\n

Monteagudo has counseled underclassmen and served as co-president of Yale\u2019s BlackGen Capital. The latter is a nonprofit that closes racial representation gaps in the finance industry by providing investment experience and access to corporate sponsors and career opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough to be in situations where students are on top of things,\u201d Monteagudo says. \u201cI assume they had their parents help them out. I needed someone to teach me. \u2026 I can\u2019t stand people who gatekeep. You want to leave people better than you were. I have access to information. You might as well help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faith and family<\/p>\n

Monteagudo may be the first in his family to graduate from an American university. His undergraduate years also provided a unique opportunity to visit relatives.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Monteagudo was a part of a dozen-person pilgrimage to Mexico.<\/p>\n

His journey was the cover story for the fall 2024 edition<\/a> of STM, the magazine for the Catholic Chapel and Center at Yale.<\/p>\n

The edition spotlighted \u201cthe beauty of diversity within faith\u201d inside the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

It may be fitting the Yale chapel is named after St. Thomas More, an English theologian and saint who refused to compromise his values at the behest of a gluttonous king. More, like Monteagudo, valued personal integrity and commitment to family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI landed five days before the STM Pilgrimage to visit family in Toluca and Michoacan. It was the first time I had ever seen my aunts, uncles and cousins and the first time I had visited my grandparents\u2019 home,\u201d Monteagudo wrote in STM magazine. \u201cI arrived to prayers of gratitude that I was able to visit after twenty years, and no conversation passed without a religious reference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journey allowed Monteagudo to visit the Bas\u00edlica de Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de los Remedios.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to see where my parents grew up and be driven around by my uncle and my cousins,\u201d Monteagudo recalled this month. \u201cWe went to a taco place where someone served my dad, when he was a taxi driver, and younger than I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible for Monteagudo to explain the impact of the sacrifices his parents have made. His initial response to the query was to ask: What haven\u2019t they done?<\/p>\n

Alex reflected on his journey, and the odyssey made by generations before him, inside a bookstore on the Southside this spring. Like many Jacksonville natives, he wore a teal pullover on the cool morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my city. I love this place. No other place has given my family the opportunities they had. The fact they chose here means something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freelance investigative journalist Sophia Cardona contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The young man walked along a once-familiar road with his sister on a sunny spring afternoon. Palmetto trees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-269707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}