According to Bondy, O’Brien’s parents also fostered her sense that many great stories were still untold.

“Soledad witnessed a lot of human tragedy over her career, from the tsunami to Haiti and Katrina,” Bondy said. “She over the years connected that to some of her early learning she got from her parents and from her mother, and her instincts are right to pick up on those kinds of stories.”

WHO SHE WAS

When she got to Harvard, O’Brien quickly immersed herself in college life.

“I loved being in a place where being smart was celebrated,” she said.

When O’Brien took a break from studying for her pre-med and English concentration classes, she played club and intramural rugby and volunteered with community service organizations, including Housing and Neighborhood Development and Phillips Brooks House Association.

“For me, Harvard was a time to figure out who I was,” she said.

According to her husband, O’Brien was very social, making friends across a wide variety of groups and cliques.

“It was very easy for her to integrate in a whole host of people, something that has borne out today,” Raymond said.

Above all, however, O’Brien appreciates that Harvard introduced her to Raymond, whom she befriended as a junior in college and started dating a few years after his graduation.

“Looking back, if there’s one thing I walked away with, it was an amazing husband,” O’Brien said.

CALLING ‘BULLSHIT’

Towards the end of her junior year, O’Brien left school to start working as an associate producer and news writer at WBZ-TV, an NBC affiliate in Boston.

Although dropping out of college can be a daunting experience, O’Brien said it was an option that made the most sense at the time.

“I was much more terrified about graduating without a clue,” O’Brien said. “That was much scarier to me. As soon I started working at a TV station, I knew I was going to love it.”