Teresa Alonso, who recently became the state of Oregon GED Administrator and a Woodburn City Council member (3rd Latino/a in the history of the city!), has graciously accepted to take time out of her schedule to say a few words at our fundraiser this Thursday. As I was sitting here thinking to myself what I might say about Teresa, I think I’ll let her speak for herself:

As a child of migrant farm workers, I grew up with limited encouragement for school as work took a higher priority. As the eldest of five children, I developed strong multitasking, negotiation and leadership skills, which I then used to link my parents to the American culture. By successfully advocating for myself and convincing my parents that I needed to go to college, I built the foundation for my life's passion which is to develop and promote education-based programs that help increase graduation rates and reduce dropout rates among communities of color.

Teresa has proudly followed her passion to help youth for the last 16 years. She developed two new programs at Portland State University: the Community Outreach Program and the Faculty Mentoring Program, targeted to faculty of color. Teresa has also served as a program director for Portland Community College, where she developed a national scholarship program for migrant students called the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). Teresa writes, “my dream is to expand my sphere of influence by continuing to help many underprivileged and underrepresented communities see their potential and attain their goals.”

Now if this isn’t an example of vision and perseverance, I don’t know what is! You can join Teresa and other great community leaders at our fundraising event, “Envisioning our Future,” this Thursday. Hope to see you there!

contributed by: Shaun Garcia