Note: Bruno Soto is part of a small group of high-achieving seniors who are being highlighted in our 2025 Hatter Headliners series.

Bruno Soto’s list of activities while a student at Stetson is far too lengthy for this space. The Reader’s Digest version: double-majoring in Economics and Political Science; completing a U.S. Department of State internship; participating in Stetson’s Model United Nations and the Alexander Hamilton Society; plus attending 2023’s inaugural Stetson Days at the Capitol in Tallahassee. 

Yet, that’s almost like saying Babe Ruth was a baseball player who hit home runs. There is so much more.

“Yes, I was very, very involved,” Soto said simply in May, just days before graduating as the recipient of Stetson’s William Amory Underhill Award, which recognizes the student who has “most demonstrated the discipline, integrity and desire to pursue a successful career in the public service.”

Is Soto worthy of that award? You bet.

The first-generation college student whose family is Ecuadorian devoted his senior research project to the 15 states that were created following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union — because he sought to “understand more about foreign investments going to those countries and why some of the countries are more successful than others. … I wanted to get to the bottom of that.”

His Department of State internship in fall 2023 took him to Washington, D.C., where he was part of a team engaged in energy policy, clean energy and economics. He worked with foreign counterparts from the Indo-Pacific, Africa and Latin America. Also, he rubbed elbows with powerful attorneys and high-ranking government officials. “It was very phenomenal to see people who were high-ranking officials,” he described. “You see people who are in the news all the time being in the same room as you. … It was a really great privilege.”

And like at Stetson, Soto didn’t squander opportunities. Instead, he made connections.

The same occurred last summer on a weeklong study abroad trip to Geneva, Switzerland. He visited such global agencies as the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the International Committee of the Red Cross. About study abroad opportunities, he commented, “You wouldn’t think that at a small university they would have programs for everywhere in the world.”

Soto now sees an immediate future with the Peace Corps before going to law school to study international law, international business and international human rights.

Soto has many options, just as he did four years ago, leaving his hometown Jacksonville to attend college. He “got to see a lot of different things that were available to me.” Ultimately, he chose Stetson.

“When I came to Stetson, I saw something that looked very familiar to me: small class sizes and camaraderie amongst the students,” he said. “I noticed everyone seemed to get along very well, which was very important to me. … And I just felt like the campus offered environments that I could thrive in.”

It turned out to be a smart decision for a bright young man who this summer can look back at Stetson with gratitude, a feeling he willingly shares to others.

His words: “You should choose Stetson because it’s the kind of place where you can ask, can knock on people’s doors, and you will find what you’re looking for. I guarantee it.”

-Michael Candelaria