All his life, Jon de Castro has been on the move.

He is either traveling, in search of new leadership opportunities and adventures, or he’s choreographing his next routine for the several organizations he performs dances with.

Often de Castro is running around preparing for a show he organized, or managing various independent hip-hop artists.

A junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, de Castro is a member of several organizations, including the Filipino Student Association, Black Student Alliance, Indian Student Association, Asian Students in Action, Hispanic American Leadership Organization and the Xquizit Dance Ensemble.

From his hometown of New York City, de Castro traveled a long way for college, about 900 miles.

When he first arrived, he planned to pursue a pre-law major.

His interests and ambitions soon changed, however, and he is now pursuing a Communication major instead.

De Castro reminisced about his first SLU visit and his unique tour of the campus, where he ran into several campus leaders.

“On a trip to campus during my senior year of high school, I met Donna Bess, Andrew Chappelle, Charles Flint, Jennifer Prudencio and former SGA Presidents, Adam Meister and Evan Krauss . They all assured me that I could find my place in SLU and be a leader on this campus from day one freshman year, and you know … they were right.”

De Castro was appointed Student Organizations Cabinet Representative of ASIA during his freshman year. He spent his sophomore year as the Secretary of ASIA and on the Diversity Leadership Cabinet.

He didn’t stop there: In his junior year, he took on the position of Director of External Affairs in FSA, a representative for the Diversity Leadership Cabinet, and is the current co-chair of the Midwest Association of Filipino Americans.

De Castro also choreographs on the side and participates in dances in a variety of the cultural organizations.

In his sophomore year alone, he participated in nine dances, so his second semester was filled with lengthy, difficult practices and only three months to master the dances.

De Castro is also on the bhangra team, a competitive dance team for ISA.

Outside of school, de Castro works as a manager for aspiring artists that perform hip-hop, rap and spoken-word poetry.

He is currently a manager for several groups, two of which are iLL-Literacy and Two Warriors, spoken-word groups from Oakland, Calif., and New York, N.Y., respectively.

When he’s not at school or working, de Castro likes to play hockey and rugby. Both are sports he has played since the age of 7.

De Castro is also a huge fan of traveling.

He has visited 45 of the 50 states, and several countries, including India, Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, Japan, Sweden, Morocco, Malaysia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, the Philippines and many more. He has been to more than 30 countries.

De Castro cherished most his trip to the Philippines, and he identified mostly with his Filipino heritage.

At one point, he spent a month and a half in southeast Asia, which, for him, was “a touching and remarkable experience,” he said.

“It was amazing meeting members of my mom’s family for the first time, and just getting to know my amazing home country. It was truly a unique experience.”