Two UMass Dartmouth graduates aim to inspire others to change for the better.

On the evening on Friday, Nov. 6, UMass Dartmouth alums Dr. Michael Rocha (’97) and Joshua Encarnacion (’14) were just two of many speakers to participate in the TEDx New Bedford talk, “uNBound.”

The TEDx program was established to bring inspiration and forward thinking to individual communities. TEDx events are intended to inspire conversation and action at the local level.

Rocha, dressed in a windbreaker and breakaway pants, looked nothing like the Hawthorne Medical Associates cardiologist and the St. Luke’s Hospital Director of Heart Failure Services he is by day. He’d spent the time leading up to his segment doing yoga backstage.

Inspired by the preventable heart disease he sees so often in his line of work, Rocha discussed staying heart healthy through lifestyle changes.

These changes go beyond just eating well. Newer studies show that a sedentary lifestyle is much more deadly than obesity, Rocha said. Although factors like a healthy diet and medication can manage heart conditions and lower the risk of heart attack and other heart conditions, there’s one factor that seems unavoidable: stress.

During medical school, Rocha became overweight. Even after, he became used to “surviving my weekdays and crashing into my weekends,” Rocha said.

It wasn’t until he met John Barks and read his book, “Wake Up to Life,” that his outlook on life and his habits began to change for the better.

Rocha implemented a new lifestyle for himself that favored mindfulness, yoga and healthy eating. Slowly, Rocha said, he began shifting from “surviving to living.”

When New Bedford was labeled “not a healthy place to grow old,” Rocha saw it as an opportunity for change, and the New Bedford Wellness Initiative was born.

Starting as a monthly wellness walk, Rocha and participants would gather at Buttonwood Park for a two-mile walk. The program encourages little lifestyle changes like laughing often.

“[It’s] the best medicine,” an audience member said approvingly.

Rocha’s prescription is this: walk, eat healthy, laugh often and live now.

After an intermission for dinner and dessert courtesy of local vendors, Joshua Encarnacion shifted gears to discuss human potential.

“We need to redefine the way we believe in people,” Encarnacion began. “Many of the talks you listened to… are focused on inspiring you, to help you… we’re going to shift that focus, and we’re going to have a discussion on ways to help somebody other than ourselves find success.”

He provided the textbook definition—or the “old definition”—of belief: “trust, faith, and confidence in somebody else.”

“This is selfish,” Encarnacion said.

Upon arriving at UMass Dartmouth as a freshman, Encarnacion had made it his goal to “find my identity in football” and had dreams of becoming an NFL player.

He was devastated when he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that causes poor blood flow to the body. High contact sports can exacerbate the condition, so Encarnacion was told it would be best for him to quit football.

“I was devastated,” Encarnacion said.

His coach recommended Encarnacion for the Emerging Leaders Symposium Program at UMass. However, his troubles were far from over.

In an attempt to impress fellow members of the symposium as well as his peers on campus, he threw an enormous party that campus police cracked down on.

Though his friends and peers who got in trouble held no bitterness, it was the campus administrators who initially supported him that turned their backs on Encarnacion.

“‘How could you? I believed in you,’” Encarnacion recalls an administrator shaming him.

However, with the encouragement of UMass Associate Vice Chancellor Dr. David Milstone, Encarnacion was able to pull himself back up. Under Milstone, he was able to find the true meaning of belief.

“Encouragement, empowerment, engagement… this definition is selfless. It does not involve your judgment, it involves your investment,” Encarnacion said.

His struggles inspired Encarnacion toward a life of service. He and his class raised $70,000 toward the DREAM Scholarship, and he graduated with a 3.8 GPA.

“We can make the world a better place not tomorrow, but today,” Encarnacion concluded.