As students, we take for granted that everything at the university has to work, be clean and organized. It is easy to forget that there are people who every day keep this university going and clean up the messes left behind. One of them is Federico Barela, a humble and laughing man from Chihuahua, who has been working here for three years. Besides working at the university, Federico Barela also works as a gardener after his shift at SFUAD finishes at 5 p.m. He also has three kids and a wife who he sees after working all day long. Usually the family sits together—along with coworker and friend Alfredo Amaya—and enjoy a self prepared meal accompanied by a cold beer and stories from back home. Besides his love for his family, Barela has strong feelings for his ranch in Chihuahua. When he talks about the fields and animals, his eyes light up and a big smile comes up in his face. “The thing I like the most about working here is to be working on the gardens,” Barela says. “I do the same things I do back in Mexico in the fields, I just love to take care of the plants, the trees and the fields”...

Peter Romero, Santa Fe University of Art and Design director of facilities and security, treats his job like he treats his own home. He is on call 24/7 (he has to silence both his office and cell phone during the course of a 20-minute interview), he doesn’t leave until everything that needs to be taken care of is squared away (“Last Tuesday I arrived at 8 a.m.,” he explains, “and went home at 12:30 a.m.”), and, most importantly, his staff is like family.