“My life got a brand-new start the day I walked through those doors,” says Anthony Otey Hernández.
Anthony Otey Hernández was a young, insecure gay man of color growing up in poverty in the Bronx with a single mother who battled illness and depression. At 15, he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders as depression struck while he was struggling to come to terms with his sexuality.
It all changed when a school counselor recommended that he visit the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.
“My life got a brand-new start the day I walked through those doors,” Anthony recalls.
At the Adolescent Health Center, he saw a psychiatrist, and underwent therapy. “I found people who cared about me, supported me, and loved me unconditionally,” he says. “I felt like I had a second home to go to. They helped me to believe in myself, and to take risks and overcome my fear of failure and my inner-loneliness.”
Most importantly, they helped him to find peace and success. “I am grateful that these people—some of whom are still in my life today—went above and beyond their official responsibilities, especially when they helped my mom avoid eviction and when they supported me so I could help her.”
With the help of the Adolescent Health Center, Anthony turned his life around.
He was valedictorian of his high school class, earned a BA from Beloit College, and an MA from Dartmouth College, both in comparative literature, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. Along the way, he was a Fulbright Scholar to Portugal.
The fearful young man who says he once considered suicide, and who, as a teenager, rarely left the Bronx, has confidently travelled to numerous countries and conducted research and lived in France, Portugal, Iceland, and Brazil.
As he remembers his struggles, he does not forget today’s underserved youth. He has had the chance to teach and mentor seventh-graders in Brooklyn, and high-schoolers from low-income neighborhoods in Paris and São Paulo, Brazil.
Now 27, he credits much of his success to the Adolescent Health Center. “I owe the remarkable life I have lived over the past 11 years to the people who helped me at this wonderful place,” he says. “I went from different, defenseless, and alone, to beautiful, validated, and loved.”