Alex Shin, a first-year student at Oxford College whose friends remember him as kind, passionate and thoughtful, died earlier this semester. A resident of McDonough, Ga., Alex was majoring in philosophy, politics and law. Outside of class, he was known as an active contributor to campus life as a Volunteer Oxford service leader and a content creator for the Oxford TikTok account. He is survived by his mother, Rosa Hurtdao.
Onemeh Erakpotobor (25Ox) met Alex during orientation last semester, and the pair later became friends.
“He was extremely genuine, always authentic,” Erakpotobor said. “He was never doubtful in anything that he said. He always seemed assured.”
Other Oxford students remembered Alex’s reflective and generous nature. Madeleine Lepley (24Ox), Alex’s resident assistant (RA) in Elizer Hall, described him as an enthusiastic and considerate student who always went out of his way to attend her events.
“He was super thoughtful,” Lepley said. “He would always bring Crumbl [Cookies] to my RA events for the whole hall with his own money.”
Everett Smith (25Ox) met Alex during orientation and lived just a few doors down in Elizer Hall. He emphasized that Alex made a great effort to ensure others knew he cared about them, noting that Alex texted him over breaks to wish him happy holidays.
“He really went out of his way to do nice things,” Smith said. “He got me a little birthday present, and I don’t even know how he knew it was my birthday.”
As a Volunteer Oxford service leader, Alex was paired with Unidos Latino Association, Inc., an organization that seeks to support Latino youth and adults in Georgia’s Rockdale and Newton Counties.
Oxford Assistant Director of Student Involvement, Leadership, and Transitions Megan Hulgan met Alex in fall 2023 during new student orientation. She described Alex as enthusiastic about engaging in service at Oxford, adding that he was especially interested in helping undocumented immigrants.
“That’s the thing that really struck me about him is that he wanted to make a difference,” Hulgan said. “He didn’t want to just be involved a little bit. He wanted to be involved a lot. He wanted to be a change-maker and to help that community of people.”
Alex volunteered at Unidos Latino Association’s Conyers Latin Festival in November 2023, a Hispanic Heritage Month event celebrating culture and history, according to Hulgan. She added that Alex had been researching ways to plan a similar event in Covington, Ga., and that she had been connecting him with members within the community to do so.
“He and I would meet and talk about how to develop a plan, who to get in contact with, that type of thing,” Hulgan said.
Lepley also noted Alex’s passion for helping highlight and solve issues that affected the Hispanic community in the United States.
“He was really interested in immigration and he was trying to make a website that connected immigrants with lawyers,” Lepley said.
Hulgan also recalled a time she brought some of the Oxford service leaders to an event focusing on unhoused people in DeKalb County.
“Alex went to every single table and learned all about the different programs that they had,” Hulgan said. “He wanted to learn about what was going on in the community and how he could get involved with that.”
Beyond engaging in community service, Alex created content for the Oxford TikTok account. Social media content creation was another one of Alex’s interests, according to Lepley.
Anthony Vargas (24Ox) remembered meeting Alex for the first time on the Oxford Quadrangle last semester when Alex asked him for help with creating social media content. Vargas said that Alex always struck up a conversation whenever they saw each other.
“Every conversation was a deep conversation,” Vargas said. “It was never just a hello and goodbye.”
Vargas stressed the importance of finding community through vulnerability.
“What I’m trying to push with in regards to remembering him is just let people know about the resources,” Vargas said, referring to the support of faculty, staff and mental health counseling at Oxford. “Let them know they can also be a resource for other people.”
Erakpotobor expanded on the importance of remembering Alex and his contributions to the Oxford community, particularly emphasizing Alex’s willingness to fully be himself.
“He never sugarcoated anything,” Erakpotobor said. “I knew what I could expect from him, and I say that because it’s rare that you come across people like that, so that was my favorite thing about him, just his genuineness.”
