By Rose Hamilton

On a warm summer morning, Henry Santana ’19 moves through the crowd of people at a Boston neighborhood event sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu. He stops frequently to chat with seniors, parents, and young adults.

As the new director of Boston's Office of Civic Organizing, Santana is responsible for helping residents obtain the resources they need to enhance their neighborhoods, including tools and materials for beautification projects; securing grants; and voter registration. Attending events such as this coffee hour at Medal of Honor Park in South Boston is one of the ways that Santana engages with residents and helps identify their needs.

“I love what I do and want to connect with the people of this city,” says Santana, who was hired by Wu in early 2022.

In the three years since Santana graduated from Lasell with degrees in history and secondary education, he gained the necessary grassroots engagement experience for his new job. He worked for two years for Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok, first as campaign field director and later as director of operations in Mission Hill and Fenway liaison.

Many of the skills Santana relies on today were first developed at Lasell. He identifies an election loss during his junior year as a pivotal moment. “It was the first time I had lost,” says Santana, who started winning class elections when he was in middle school. “I kept asking myself: ‘What did I do wrong?’”

Santana managed to turn the loss into a learning experience. He sought out classmates for genuine conversations. Instead of telling them about his vision, he asked about theirs. He attended more campus events to listen to students and understand their priorities.

By the next year’s election, he was ready to run again, not to get votes, but to try to make a difference, Santana says. “I let my classmates know that I couldn’t fix everything, but I would work to get issues resolved and connect them to the right people.

He won the election, and served as Lasell's senior class president during the 2018-2019 academic year.

Now at the helm of the civic organizing office, Santana is helping to foster a sense of connection in the neighborhoods so residents feel like part of their own block as well as engaged with the larger Boston community.

“This job is bigger than me,” Santana says. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities, “I just try to be myself and be as authentic as I can be."