Friends, faculty and community members gathered for a memorial and celebration of sophomore Emily Sotelo’s life on Dec. 7. Sotelo passed away after being reported missing after she went on a planned solo hike in the White Mountains.
She is survived by her parents, Olivera and Jorge Sotelo, and her younger sister Michelle, who reside in Westford, Massachusetts.
“She was really very happy at Vanderbilt. She was involved in clubs, and she had a vision of what she wanted to do with the clubs,” Olivera Sotelo said. “It was a place where she really found that she could call home.”
Sotelo transferred to Vanderbilt in the Fall 2022 semester from the College of William and Mary and studied biochemistry and chemical biology on a pre-medical track. Her father described that Sotelo’s dream to become a doctor stemmed from her parents’ careers, as they are both medical practitioners. He said Sotelo became especially interested in the field of neonatology after interning at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital during the summer after she graduated high school.
“She [was] a very sensitive child. She really wanted to make the world a better place,” Olivera Sotelo said. “She really was impressed with observing how the babies are fighting for their life. That was a fascination that she had, [of] just life itself.”
Sotelo was passionate about volunteer initiatives in healthcare and education. As a high school student at Westford Academy, Sotelo served as the program director of the reminiscence therapy project at Bridges by EPOCH, an assisted living facility. She also volunteered with her mother at the Dream Diné Charter School at the Navajo reservation in New Mexico to provide students with additional educational support. Sotelo became a trained EMT when she was 18 years old and worked for the Boston Fire Department.
According to her father, Sotelo wanted to continue working as an EMT in Tennessee and had planned to complete training in Memphis during winter break. At Vanderbilt, Sotelo served as community service chair of DORE Initiative, a drug overdose prevention club, and public relations chair of the Big ‘Dore Lil ‘Dore club, which provides free tutoring services to Metro Nashville Public School students.
At her memorial, students shared stories about how they met Sotelo, describing how Sotelo had introduced herself to them at Transfer Student Orientation, their shared dorm bathroom or even the 2301 line. In an interview with The Hustler, sophomore Kaitlyn Bushey said Sotelo would often make an effort to remember small details about those around her and make a conscientious effort to build a friendship with her. Bushey is a staff writer for The Hustler.
“Emily was a very sweet person and was incredibly considerate of others,” Bushey said. “She was genuinely interested in my life and her other friends’ lives, and I felt her genuine excitement for me when I talked about exciting things that were happening in my life. I think everyone should strive to be more like Emily.”
Bushey also reminisced on their shared study sessions and a Bruce Springsteen music event they attended together in September.
“The last text she sent me was “…let’s make a point to get back into our routine after break!” Bushey said. “This text was really heartbreaking to me, because we never got the chance to do that, but I’m grateful for the time that I got to know her.”
Associate professor of physics Savanna Starko, who taught Sotelo’s introductory physics class, held a moment of silence in her class when students returned to campus after Thanksgiving break, in remembrance of Sotelo.
“Emily had a soft, positive spirit about her. I can compare the feeling I had chatting with her to that feeling I get when a very gentle breeze passes me by,” Starko said. “It’s both comforting and brings my awareness to the present moment. Emily had a way of grounding anyone to whom she was talking right there and then in the conversation.”
Sotelo’s intellectual curiosity extended to mathematics, English and music. In high school, she won a Scholastic Award in Writing and attended the Massachusetts All State Music Festival as a French Horn player. Associate professor of Medicine, Health and Society Camellia Koleyni praised Sotelo’s “thoughtful and intentional” approach to learning.
“In her sweet and humble manner, she shared wonderful ideas, asked insightful questions and was engaged both with the class and classmates,” Koleyni said. “I always appreciated her kindness, her conscientiousness, our conversations and her ongoing desire to be the best at all that she set out to do.”
Her father described Sotelo as an avid outdoors person. She was captain of her high school cross country team and fell in love with hiking during her senior year of high school. Sotelo became part of a club for the 48 4000-Footers of New Hampshire, a group that seeks to climb all of the mountain peaks in the state that meet the criteria. Sotelo sought to finish this goal before her 20th birthday on Nov. 23, 2022. Sotelo set out to complete her remaining peaks, which include Mount Lafayette, Mount Haystack and Mount Flume, and was hiking trails encompassing these mountains when she passed just days before her birthday.
According to her mother, Sotelo was training to run the Nashville Marathon in April 2023. She enjoyed exploring various parts of Nashville, such as The Catio Cat Lounge.
In his Nov. 23 email about Soleto’s passing, Dean of Students G.L. Black listed various resources for Vanderbilt students to utilize as they process and grieve. The resources listed include the University Counseling Center, the Center for Student Well-Being, the Center for Spiritual and Religious Life and the university’s GriefNet service.
In lieu of flowers, Sotelo’s parents are seeking donations for the search and rescue volunteer teams in the New England region that looked for Sotelo when she went missing.
