“Social change takes a long time to happen. Social change is not about any one person. Social change is enacted step by step.”
“Mi gente es mi gente, y la adoro.” (My people are my people, and I adore them.)
My name is Luis Ornelas and I was fortunate enough to be one of The Community Foundation’s Cardinal Fellows this summer. I am a rising junior at Stanford University in the Urban Studies Program, but my big passion is education.
I spent this summer working with The Community Foundation’s School Readiness Initiative. Among many other things, I worked directly on projects related to ELPASO, our program that helps close the achievement gap in Boulder County through Latino parent involvement and leadership.
Now that my time in Boulder has come to an end, I find myself reflecting very seriously about the work that I did this summer. At a superficial level, I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to learn as much as I did from my experience. The entire time I was at The Community Foundation, I found myself pushing myself to quickly learn new skills in order to complete the substantive tasks that were asked of me. I feel an increased professional competence that I will one day carry with me into the workforce.
On a deeper level, leaving Boulder was very difficult for me. I originally came to this community with the unrealistic expectation that the infamous achievement gap in Boulder County would disappear as a result of my work. It is now at the end of the summer that I soberly have to report that that is not the case; the achievement gap is still here and it continues to hurt the Latino community disproportionately. While it feels wrong to leave when I have not done enough to ensure educational equality in the community, I feel comforted by the hard lessons that I learned while I was here.
Social change takes a long time to happen. Social change is not about any one person. Social change is enacted step by step. Even though I didn’t singlehandedly close the achievement gap in Boulder County, I realize now that that was never going to be my role. Instead, I did my part by helping my organization move its mission forward. I used my unique skills, knowledge, and perspective to contribute my piece to the solution. This experience helped me gain invaluable insights on the role that I can play within a community. Social change is possible and I contributed to it in this community, but there is a lot of work left to do and I know that this community is strong enough to make it happen.
I left Boulder recently, but I like to think that I left my mark, and at the same time, took with me many learned lessons. In order to better provide services for the Latino community, I have spoken out about Latino needs, not as a spokesperson for the Latino community, but as a Latino myself who cares. I take with me a refined passion for public service, understanding that my role in the community is not to solve problems, but to find ways to empower my community to collectively find solutions to our problems.
Most importantly, however, I leave Boulder with pride. I have once again seen my community come together and stand firm in the face of adversity. I have seen leaders born from a system that is unforgiving to anyone who looks different or has an untraditional background. I have seen my community’s strength, its will to persevere, and its resilience in the face of injustice.
For that reason, I would like to echo the sentiment that one of our School Readiness Coordinators shared with me when we spoke about our Latino community. “Mi gente es mi gente, y la adoro.” And man, do I adore my people.
Thank you,
Luis
Read more about Luis’ experience with The Community Foundation.
