Rodrigo Fernández of Men's Volleyball Latinx Heritage Month Feature

As the end of Latinx Heritage month approaches, Princeton University Athletics is proud to highlight Latinx student-athletes and share their stories.

Rodrigo Fernández of the Princeton Men's Volleyball team takes great pride in his identity as a Latinx student athlete. The senior, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering student-athlete from Saltillo, Mexico, never thought he would have the opportunity to be both a student and an athlete at Princeton.

Despite being a long way from home in Mexico, Fernández always makes sure to carry the pride he has for his Mexican heritage with him wherever he goes. Fernández was raised within a culture that taught him the values of community, respect, and inclusion. While at Princeton, he tries to regularly embody these values on campus, including while he is out on the volleyball court.

Fortunately, Fernández' teammates are all very open to learning and hearing of different perspectives and backgrounds. The team often has meetings where everyone is free to share what they love about their culture.

"I love telling my peers about different traditions, important dates, cultural facts and more about my country," said Fernández. "Specially, in more recent years, the Day of the Dead has become an important tradition to me, and I love celebrating it with my family. I particularly like getting together and singing songs for and with those who we remember that day."

When Rodrigo is not playing volleyball with his team or studying for his exams, he is most likely making music. His main hobby off campus is creating music under the artist's name of ROI. Rodrigo started this project during his sophomore year after he took a music production class at Princeton and wrote his first ROI song as the final project. Since then, his friends, family and teammates have all been very supportive of his music career.

"You can really see the influences in my music," explained Fernández. "I always find myself being caught between two worlds; living in Mexico and the United States, being a student and being an athlete, and being a musician and an engineer. You can really hear that in the mix of genres in all my songs."

During his gap year, Rodrigo spent many months back home in Mexico working with his label and releasing multiple songs. Rodrigo even got the chance to play several, live shows and is now set to play at a festival called Zapal. This is the biggest festival in his hometown city and has been a dream of his to perform at ever since he went to hear one of his favorite bands play in 2019.

If you find yourself in Dillion Gym for a men's volleyball match this upcoming season, you may even have the chance to hear one of Rodrigo's songs being played during the team's pre-game warmup. "It always makes me proud to be a part of a team that regularly supports me and my culture so much," said Fernández.

Rodrigo's Links

Rodrigo's ROI Artist Spotify

Rodrigo's ROI Artisit Instagram

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