NYU Alumni & Friends Connect

November 15, 2018

The NYU Alumni Association (NYUAA) represents all NYU alumni, from every NYU school and department—a community more than half-a-million strong. The diverse and active NYUAA Board of Directors is made up of alumni volunteers who steer the Association in their mission to engage and support alumni. Angel Ochoa (GSAS ’11) is a fourth-year board member and serves on the NYUAA Volunteer Leadership Outreach Committee. He was previously co-president of the NYU LGBTQ Alumni Network from 2013 to 2017.  

Angel Ochoa (GSAS ’11)

Angel received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago before attending NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science where he earned his master’s in anthropology. Professionally, Angel is a project delivery manager for the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, a joint project between the UK Mission to the United Nations and British Consulate General in NYC.

Meet Angel

What is your favorite:

  • Food? Mexican mole negro
  • Book? The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, by Emile Durkheim
  • TV Show and/or Movie? Lord of the Rings Trilogy
  • Song and/or Musical Artist? Caetano Veloso
  • Way to spend a Saturday? Drinking rosé in Fire Island
  • Place to travel? Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
  • Place on the NYU campus? Department of Cinema Studies, Tisch

What is your favorite memory from your time at NYU?

My favorite memory at NYU was during my first year of graduate study at the Department of Anthropology. I met with other department students on a cold but very sunny late autumn afternoon on the second floor of Rufus D. Smith Hall to discuss the future of the Anthropology Graduate Student Association, as there was very little programming. I, still energized from my undergraduate studies in Chicago, volunteered a dozen ideas and dominated the meeting. To my surprise I was named president then and there, which I later found out was uncommon for second year students. With the blessings of the department chair, I then restructured the group to allow first year students to actively participate on the board. It was an exciting time!

Why do you give back to NYU?

I give back to NYU to remind those at the University and my colleagues that resources for student groups are a vital aspect of American higher education. Essential soft skills like organizational planning, budgeting, and surveying opinions were skillsets I built in spaces like NYU and have increased my value as a professional in the private sector. I am encouraged to keep giving when it means students feel empowered to volunteer their free time to always pursue a life of the mind through educational programming.