Kayla Hockman
Staff Writer
University of La Verne Director of Civic and Community Engagement Marisol Morales was recently accepted into the 2015 Cross Sector Leadership Fellows Program as the only representative from a California university.
The Fellows Program, sponsored by Presidio Institute in San Francisco, develops leaders who can connect and collaborate with other business, government and non-profit professionals to resolve critical issues in the society nationally.
The program runs from March to October.
“I’m really excited,” Morales said. “It’s a great opportunity.”
“As a former professional of development, it’s wonderful because I get to learn in an environment with others who care about the issues that impact communities and really work on creating a solution,” she said.
The program selects 24 business, non-profit, academia, philanthropy and government professionals to learn multiple disciplines within different sectors and develop as leaders.
The Cross Sector Leadership Fellows program partners with thriving organizations, including White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, BlackRock and McKinsey & Company.
“Marisol has an inherit, deeply felt passion for engaging with the community for the purpose of creating better social structures, better political systems, better economic systems so that there’s greater justice to our human relations with one another,” University Chaplain Zandra Wagoner said.
Morales has high hopes for the near future at ULV as a fellow, linking mass incarceration and prison by developing university programs.
She hopes to bring the Inside Out program to the University, joining inmates and university students together to study criminal justice at a local prison.
“I’ve only known her for a few months and I can already tell that she goes out of her way to really help people out,” senior sociology major Victor Campos said.
“I can’t think of anyone else that will represent the University better than she can,” he said.
The selected Cross Sector Leadership fellows endured a competitive application process, focusing on personal achievements, program contribution ability and desire to work with other sectors in their work or community.
“I think representing (higher education) is one of the things that made me a candidate,” Morales said.
The rigorous program helps fellows increase their skill sets and networks and revise their viewpoints on how to best solve community challenges.
“As for the University, it’s great to be present amongst this group of leaders nationally and show what the University of La Verne has to offer,” Morales said.
Morales’ community work and impact expands far beyond the Cross Sector Leadership Fellows program.
She recently contributed to an international service-learning book, “Crossing Boundaries.”
The book is about the tension and transformation in international service learning. It discusses the topic’s philosophies and partnerships, sharing stories from many writers and 12 different programs.
“Crossing Boundaries” was a result of eight years’ worth of work and Morales collaborated with Arturo Caballero Barron from Marist University in Mexico.
“I felt like it was my second child,” Morales said.
“I was working with my colleague and he’d write his piece in Spanish and I’d have to translate it into English and make it fit within the academic aspect,” she said.
The book highlights tension and transformation in international service-learning.
Morales’ and Barron’s portion focuses on Asset-Based Community Development and Integral Human Development in a service-learning program.
The Asset-Based Community Development is about a community’s strengths its deficiencies.
“It was such a wonderful opportunity to really work with a colleague and look at the work we were doing in terms of sending students to a really deep meaningful experience in Mexico,” Morales said.
Morales’ and Barron’s program was geared to Latino students or strong Spanish language speaking students. It forced students to develop relationships with Mexican communities that were developed out of globalization, Morales said.
“Our college students were really able to see the impact of our national policy on a very grass roots level,” Morales said.
The service-learning book is published by Stylus in September 2013 and will be released electronically this month.
Morales is not only a faculy member but she also strikes to become a better professor.
“Morales is in to embracing her culture as a Latina in the United States and you can really see that reflected in her classes,” Campos said.
“She’s really passionate about what she teaches and she does it really well,” he said.
Morales also worked for the Latino community prior to coming to the University.
Morales was commissioner and chair of education sub-committee of the Latino Family Commission for the Office of Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn from 2009 to 2013. She worked with public policies and legislations, representing Latino families in Illinois.
The Cross Sector Leadership Fellows Program is not Morales’ first leadership program. She was in the Executive Leadership Program participant for the National Hispana Leadership Institute in 2008.
“This is such a natural fit for her and a real compliment and acknowledgment of her deep commitment to our human community,” Wagoner said.
Kayla Hockman can be reached at kayla.hockman@laverne.edu.
Kayla Hockman
