Productive Service

Service to the University

In the course of my years of service at CCSU, my commitment with the Latino community has been growing in time quantity and intensity: From just participating, passively at the beginning and more actively in the later years, in the events organized by the different associations, to becoming a community leader, first as president of the Latin American Association, and recently as the director of the Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Center in two different terms (2015-1017- 2019-20). The mission of the center, which had a strong academic component, expanded with special emphasis on supporting cultural events and research projects that help us improve the academic performance of our Latino students. Community outreach became one of the priorities of the center since we aspire to create mature and functional citizens with a strong sense of community. With the threat of a vaguely defined multicultural center, which might have absorbed and assimilated the LALCC, pending on our heads, I started a frantic activity in the three areas of the center’s mission: academic research, creating and distribution of culture and community outreach.

It would exceed the expectations and reasonable limits of this narrative if I described here all my achievements during my time as a director of the center. I will just refer to two of the highlights.

In October 2019, we organized the academic conference Living in las Américas: Migration and Communities. Scholars from different regions of the U.S. attended the conference. Some of the research projects of the center were presented in different panels.

In the Spring of 2019, we invited Latino families with children in the junior and senior year of high school to attend an informative event at CCSU. The goal of this action was to increase the recruitment of Latino students. The event was successful since practically all the families that attended the event completed the application to register at Central.

After my term as director, I have kept being active at the center. I was in charge of the Website until the marketing department took over, and participated in the activities organized by the current leadership.

Beyond my activity as director of the LALCC, I have been, since 2012 and until 2020, a member of the University’s Minority Recruitment and Retention Committee.

Service to the Department

Practically since I joined the department, I have been a member of both the departmental undergraduate and graduate curriculum committees.

I have been a member of the search committee for the tenure track position on health communication.

I have been the AAUP liaison of our department since 2020.

Promotion was another area in which I had the opportunity to serve our department and the university. For many years, since 2006, I was the official Web-master of the department. Our Web-site needed urgently to be updated because of the substantial changes implemented in both the graduate and the undergraduate programs. I also created new pages for our certificate program in public relations, as well as for open positions in the department. Updating the Web-site was probably the most time-demanding task of all my commitments to the department. I was managing the contents of the department’s Web-site until the marketing department took over in 2021.

Community Engagement

Of all my academic activities over the past 6 years, I am most proud of running the soccer program in New Britain during the pandemic, which I restarted in the Summer of 2020. I founded a non-profit organization with a group of parents from the city of New Britain: New Britain Soccer (NBS). We have seen first-hand the direct impact that a strong community-based sports program can have on kids, families, and urban communities. This was particularly clear during the lockdowns. To run the program during the restrictions was quite a challenge. We had to move our club through the several stages of the “return to play” process, making sure that parents and players comply with the guidelines of the Connecticut Junior Soccer Association. We were able to keep kids moving and away from their multiple screens during those dire times. I was the president of this organization for 6 years and am now the vice president.

In conclusion, I truly believe that I have been an active and consequent member of Central Connecticut State University community. I was always willing to help colleagues in and outside my department. When asked to participate in the events organized on campus, I was always happy to do it. One of CCSU’s highlights during the academic year 2023/24 was the celebration of the Declaring Freedom event. The event was organized by Prof. Matthew Warshauer, from the History Department in March 2024. I participated actively in the event as a presenter in one of the sessions. I have helped several faculty colleagues organize and promote their film festivals, mostly designing promotional material, developing the event’s Web-site, and presenting some of the movies. I have also acted as an interpreter (Spanish-English) in several events with Spanish-speaking guests.