By Bella Grimaldi Staff Writer What is your academic and professional background? I've basically spent my entire adult life in academia. I went to Framingham State as an undergrad doing political science, did my master’s at Northeastern and I found such an incredible advisor that I stayed there for my Ph.D. working in political science. My two fields are international relations and public policy. I examined the role of international forces in shaping domestic politics. Then while I was doing my Ph.D. at Northeastern, I completed the circle of life and I came back to Framingham State, working part time as a visiting lecturer in the political science department. And now I am in a newly tenure-track position. What brought you to Framingham State? I went to Framingham State as an undergraduate because I come from a working-class background - like many students here do. So costs were a big thing to me. And I had known for a long time that I wanted to do my Ph.D., and so I thought, I'm going to get the most bang for my buck by diving into my studies at Framingham State. Also, I live in Natick, so I was literally riding my bike to school every day, and I was working full time at GameStop. When I went to Framingham State, I realized there's a major benefit to going to these smaller liberal arts institutions where the faculty are super dedicated, and I had such great mentors here. They really set me up for success. I'm forever in debt to them. When I got reached out to about a visiting lecturer position, I had never been so excited in my life. I remember getting that email and screaming, “I'm doing it finally!” because I always wanted to be a professor. I was so happy about that. I've just had such an amazing time here as a visiting lecturer. While I was finishing my Ph.D., a spot opened at Framingham [State]. I was like, “This is the job I want.” I was looking between working at Framingham State as a professor or working as a pharmaceutical policy analyst and lobbyist. Obviously, I took a very substantial, six-figure pay cut to come and teach here, but I just absolutely love it. It's so rewarding. The faculty are great and the students are very motivated, too. I love working one-on-one with students. Everything about Framingham State, I love. What are some of your hobbies? I'm still very much into the lifting space. But the big one is that I'm an internationally recognized professional trading card game player. I'm a big anime nerd, and my favorite anime is “One Piece.” And then I found out they were coming out with a card game based on “One Piece.” And I was all in. And I actually supported my family doing that while I was doing my Ph.D. I had a crazy ride where I ended up becoming the number one in the world on my specific deck of choice. And I was topping regionals in Canada, getting like 20 grand in pricing for regionals and stuff like that. I even got my invite to Nationals, and flew out to L.A. to play trading card games, and I ended up topping nationals as well. I'm still very much in the competitive card game space. How has getting your doctorate affected your classes or teaching style? I was teaching at Framingham State while I was doing my doctorate. I think a lot of faculty express struggle with how to synthesize their research and their teaching. And I think the fact that I started teaching while I was doing my research helped me see the overlap between the two. So, if I'm researching something, I love to insert it into my classes. I'm a big drug policy guy, for instance. I use a lot of drug policy examples in my teaching. That's kind of like an obvious one - teach the things you research and research the things you teach. And, there's that reinforcing overlap there. My favorite thing is to hire students as research assistants. I have students come up to me all the time saying, “Dr. Espino, I love the class. And I want to keep working with you in a more advanced capacity.” Whenever I have a student that wants to take that opportunity, I am always just so happy to give it to them, and that is the most rewarding component of the job by far. I've done a lot of drug policy research with students and doing conferences with them, and getting them as co-authors on potential papers. And actually, right now, I just got funding to hire a couple of my favorite students from my international relations class. We're going to be doing a research project for a conference presentation, and eventual publication on, of all things, the role of Taylor Swift in international relations. What advice would you offer students at Framingham State? If you go all in at Framingham State, you can get just as good, if not better, results than you could if you went to a school like Northeastern, for instance. To be completely honest, when I was teaching at Northeastern and I was teaching at Framingham State, there was no difference between my classes. It was the same thing. Back when I was a Framingham State student, I felt that, because of financial things, I was constrained in the school I was going to, and I felt like I'm not getting the full college experience of going to a school like a party school or something like that. But if you put in the work, the faculty will recognize it, and they will do everything in their power to keep building you up beyond what you thought was possible. So if you give it your all, you will get it all in return.