The real Ameer Lester '26 – the leader and the entrepreneur – was always there, somewhere dormant inside of him. Siena didn't change Lester. The University and its community helped to reveal him.
There was a gym across the street from the public housing development in the Bronx where Lester lived with his grandmother while finishing high school. It was a short walk, but one that Lester made briskly with his head always down.
"You can't interact with people like you do at Siena. Whenever I would go to the gym, I would ignore what's around me. I didn't talk. I didn't engage. That's how you live in that environment. There are people there always doing things that aren't the best."
So Lester kept his head down and moved forward. That's what he did when he got sick. And that's what he did when his mom got really sick.
When Lester was 16, he starting walking with a limp. It was so subtle he didn't notice it, but his mom did. She was a nurse and had a keen eye for symptoms. She was also a mom and intuitively knew there was something wrong with her oldest son. But it wasn't just Lester's gait. He started to notice a numbness in his left hand and a weakness in his legs. After several inconclusive tests, a tumor was detected that was pressing on his spine. The tumor was successfully removed just before it had a chance to do irreparable harm. Thankfully, it was non-cancerous, but the cancer attacking Lester's mom was getting worse. She passed away later that year.
"My mom always wanted me to be grateful for what I had. She wanted me to get an education and be successful. I felt this weight on my shoulders, a responsibility, when she passed. I was the oldest now. I had to look out for my two younger siblings. I couldn't let them down. This wasn't their fault. I couldn't let them fend for themselves."
Lester's grades before his tumor weren't great, and they got worse as he struggled, physically and emotionally, his junior year. But as a senior, he produced an A average. It was too late for a lot of colleges, but not Siena.
"My GPA senior year reflected my potential. Siena saw that, and I was accepted into the HEOP program."
Lester had never been north of New York City before leaving for Siena. In fact, he had never even considered it. "The thought of upstate never crossed my mind." But this is where he found himself.
"It's been life-changing. Literally, Siena has changed how I perceive the world around me. When I first got here, people walked by me and smiled and waved. At first, I was weirded out by it. That's how much of a culture shock it was. But then I realized, 'I don't have to be alone.' I was afraid of people before, but not in a terrified way. I just didn't believe I could trust people."
It didn't talk long for Lester to start waving back. He quickly found his people and his passion. The marketing major, with a minor in entrepreneurship, won Siena's Spark Tank competition last year, and this summer, he's the head counselor for the HEOP summer program. A new cohort of HEOP students are getting their introduction to college life this month, and if they take anything away from their time with Lester, he wants it to be this:
"Change isn't bad. Change isn't something you should be afraid of. Discover yourself. I have a different face here. It's not a fake face. It's who I wanted to be. So I want these students to know, 'That's you in there. You just haven't been able to realize it.'"
