Like many college seniors, Olga Pagan, MC ’10, will turn in her thesis on Mon., Apr. 19. That evening, however, unlike many college seniors, she will appear on national television.

Pagan is starring in an MTV special, tentatively titled “Wise Latina,” which will profile women of Puerto Rican descent excelling at colleges across the country. Inspired by the success story of Sonia Sotomayor, LAW ’79, the show is also a response to criticism of an episode of True Life: “I’m a Nuyorican.” which aired on MTV last January and sparked fury over its negative portrayal of young Puerto Ricans living in New York City—a saucy 22-year-old woman who spits racial epithets and dreams of becoming a bellydancer; a 20-year-old dropout tempted by a life of drugs and violence in the barrio; and an 18-year-old who sasses her mother and appears generally indifferent to life. “Wise Latina” is MTV’s effort to break its own tired stereotypes by showcasing bright and high-achieving students like Pagan.

Since January, a camera crew from MTV has been following Pagan everywhere. They visited her home in West Nyack, NY; interviewed her parents; and attended her twenty-second birthday party along with her family and closest friends. They also filmed her senior recital in February, which included Pagan singing pieces she had arranged herself, along with a performance by students from New Haven Academy, a magnet high school where Pagan directs a choir program called NHA Voices.

On a recent afternoon, I joined Pagan for a follow-up shoot with the choir at New Haven Academy. When we arrived in front of the classroom, a small high school girl with a ponytail met us at the door. It was raining outside, and Pagan’s jacket dripped with water. The girl eyed her skeptically. “You got your changing clothes, so you don’t look a mess?” Raincoat shed, dressed in a purple sweater, silver hoops, and gray jeans—with a microphone clipped to the back pocket—Pagan waited outside the room while the film crew squeezed their equipment into spaces between desks. The producer, looking harried and carrying a clipboard, finally cued Pagan to enter the classroom where her students were gathered.

“Hey guys!” she said cheerfully as she swished through the door, dark-brown curls swinging. “Heyyy!” replied an enthusiastic chorus of voices. The door closed, leaving me alone in the hallway. Four seconds later, Pagan returned. “People were in other people’s shots,” she explained, raising her eyebrows and waving a hand in the air in an expression of mild frustration. A moment later, the producer gestured for her to come back into the room. The exchange of greetings was repeated, only slightly more forced this time. Muffled laughter came through the closed door as Pagan bantered with her students, and through a small window, I could see them clustered in a circle around her. On one wall of the classroom hung a poster reading “DETERMINATION” underneath a photograph of a mountain climber in profile against a bright blue sky.

Pagan’s grandparents were born in Puerto Rico, and moved to the United States with a wave of immigrants hoping to escape a country devastated by American attempts at progress. “One of [the United States’] solutions, after industrialization didn’t work, was to say, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t stay in Puerto Rico, because you’re poor and unemployed—move to New York!’” Pagan told me. Her parents were both born and raised in New York City, and moved to nearby West Nyack when Pagan was five.

Her grandparents’ dream of a brighter future for their family in the United States has been realized in Pagan’s success inside and outside of the classroom. A psychology major pursuing a career in education, she volunteers with programs like NHA Voices while holding down three jobs; performing in singing and dance groups on campus; and trying to attend class. Following graduation, she is deciding whether to accept a fellowship to pursue a graduate degree in education from Stanford, or to work as an English teacher in Venezuela on a Fulbright Scholarship.

With her crowded schedule, Pagan said it has sometimes been difficult coordinating with the MTV crew. “It bothers me that I have to miss class sometimes to go to these shootings, because it’s like, ‘You picked me because I’m a Yale student—I have to go to class!’” she said. “But it’s cool—it’s really cool. It’s probably worth it.”

According to Pagan, the best part of the MTV experience has been seeing the enthusiasm of her students. The prospect of a televised performance gave the group, which had never sung in concert before Pagan’s show, inspiration to push themselves. “They were like, ‘Oh, we’re going to be on MTV? We need to work hard, we need to practice!’ It was great. It got them really motivated and excited,” Pagan remarked.

Hearing her students describe her to the film crew has also been rewarding, she says. “They would kick me out of the room to talk to the students, but I eavesdropped a number of times. Hearing things like, ‘She gave us the confidence to be able to sing in front of a group,’ or, ‘We were skeptical at first, but we know how much she cares about us,’” Pagan recalled. “I work with kids all the time, and you don’t really get that kind of direct feedback. Seeing them succeed, especially in the concert, was awesome. But hearing them verbalize the way they felt was amazing.”

Pagan said that her students can’t wait for the show to be televised. “They’re going to get a total kick out of being on TV,” she declared, her voice full of affection. But Pagan herself, busy living the life of a “Wise Latina,” seems less concerned with the final product.

“I’ll be in tech for a show, so I don’t even know if I’ll watch it when it comes out,” Pagan said. “But I’ll try to have someone tape it for me.”