Troy Gonsalves is a rising track star gaining attention at Lasell. You can’t miss Gonsalves walking around the Lasell campus because he is tall, athletic and will most likely be sporting a pair of running shorts. Even though Gonsalves is only a freshman, he is a wise, young man with inspiring goals for life.
Running didn’t come naturally for Gonsalves, he worked hard to become the experienced runner that he is today. He said, “In high school, my freshman year I was overweight and the slowest one on the team and it was really hard. I couldn’t even run half of a mile. Once I started dropping my weight, my times started dropping and I started getting faster throughout the years. By the end of high school I was a captain of cross-country, indoor and outdoor track. We won our first indoor state track championship in 43 years and our first New England cross-country championship in 50 years, it was a really huge accomplishment.” Gonsalves proved that determination can get you far and can be life changing.
As a freshman living in Woodland Hall, he offered some thoughtful advice on how to get through the first year of college.
“A lot of the time college is what you make of it. Get to know an array of people, try not seclude yourself to one particular group,” Gonsalves said.
Gonsalves uses his strong will to keep up with all of the practices and meetings he attends at Lasell for the cross-country team, track and field team, and Multi-Cultural Student Union. If he can spare any down time in his schedule he prefers to spend it by doing his favorite thing, hanging out with friends he’s met in the past few months.
He hails from Providence, RI and took that into consideration when he applied to Lasell College.
“I looked at the website and I wanted somewhere where I could fit in both academically and athletically and was at a right distance from home, so this seemed really perfect.” He makes a great addition to Lasell College as a Law and Public Affairs major. It is a no brainer when he divulges that his favorite show is Law and Order SVU.
Other than the crime show Law and Order Gonsalves loves reality TV shows.
“I would love to be on reality TV, like The Challenge. It involves strategy and athleticism,” he said.
Although Gonsalves loves to participate in athletic activities his description of his perfect date was casual and relaxing.
“My perfect date would be at home or at a comfortable place watching a funny movie and lots of unhealthy food and laughing,” Gonsalves described. That was not the only surprising fact about him, he also prefers to wear kakis, a nice polo, and Sperry’s as his outfit of choice over athletic wear.
Another interesting fact that Gonsalves shared during his interview is his ability to work well with technology. “Hobby-wise, I’m really good with technology and computers. If there was a field that I would get into besides law it would be something like that,” he said.