“It was really hard at first,” he said. “It was just my mom and me, so making friends wasn’t easy. I’ve always been a little shy, but eventually I told myself I had to open up. Once I started meeting more Puerto Rican and Dominican kids in Springfield, I felt more at home—like I was basically back in Puerto Rico. But to really learn the language, I had to step outside that comfort zone. I started spending time with kids from different backgrounds, and I made myself watch everything in English, like TV shows to movies, just to get comfortable with it. That’s what helped me learn so fast.”
The transition from high school to Boston College brought both excitement and adjustment. Back in Springfield, the focus was on the goal: earning the chance to play college baseball.
Arriving at BC meant starting over again.
Yet, the campus felt like a melting pot, a mix of backgrounds and experiences that broadened their perspective.
And so, when both players stepped foot on campus, the adjustment felt like starting fresh again, but this time, the challenge came with support.
“Everyone here is really nice. They help you a lot. Like, the students here are really helpful, because for me in high school, my goal was to be here one day, and I was just really focused on the goal of just being here,” Solier explained. “So I didn’t really like to make friends, and I didn’t really talk. But when I got here, I told myself, I gotta be more. I gotta talk to people and be able to make connections and stuff like that at BC, you can make friends really quickly.”