Many UNC Greensboro alumni stick around to work for the University, finding ways to give back by serving the students who come after them.
One of those, Marisa González ’16, ’19 M.A., has worn many hats, and often many at once. Right now, she’s a student, alumna, staff member, and lecturer.
She embraces so many different roles, she says, because sometimes the key to a student’s success is a change of perspective. She knows first-hand that a conversation or a moment of encouragement can be the spark that helps someone reach their goals.
Encontrando su camino aquí
When González arrived at UNCG as a first-generation student, the cultural shift toward earning a college degree had not yet taken root within her family or community. In her first semester, she began to have doubts. That all changed, however, thanks to a little encouragement from Carmen Sotomayor, Ph.D., now professor emerita of the languages, literatures, and culture (LLC) department.
“Her class Spanish 302, that one class, kept me here,” says González. “She was the first one to see something in me. I like to say she was my angel in my first semester.”
González changed majors to Spanish education with K-12 teacher licensure. After finishing her degree, she stayed to earn a master of arts in languages, literature, and culture for Spanish at the urging of another mentor, Department Associate Head Ignacio Lopez, Ph.D.
“I found a space where I could grow and really thrive,” she says. “I also felt like I could make an impact by teaching about culture and language.”
Graduate school introduced her to new ways to give back to the University that had served her. The University Teaching and Learning Commons (UTLC) offered her a graduate assistantship, which eventually led to a full-time job offer.
La Voz de la Comunidad
All those experiences inspired her to serve students facing the same doubts she overcame. She says, “When I started my Ph.D., I felt something change in me. I wanted to connect with my identity and my culture a little bit more and in other capacities on campus.” To that end, González moved into the admissions office to provide bilingual services, then into the Office of Intercultural Engagement (OIE). She began teaching introductory Spanish courses.
Over the years, she observed a demographic shift. Today, UNCG is an emerging Hispanic-serving institution, with those students comprising 22% of the first-year class.
“The growth in our Latine-Hispanic community really caught my attention,” says González. “When I started here, I think we were at 4%. I was seeing a need in admissions. We started asking, ‘Where is the space for them to build community once they are at UNCG?'”
González helped start a focus group with students and other employees. “Some of the things that came up a lot were unity, feeling represented, community, support in navigating the University,” she recalls. “They wanted to know that they’re not alone, that there’s spaces that they can come back to and feel like they have a family here.”
With this feedback, she helped launch OIE’s Herencia, a collective to build and support community. Through this and other programs, she’s become a familiar face among students looking for academic resources or social events that emphasize their shared heritage.
Círculo Completo
UNCG continues to change under her watch, and it remains deeply personal to González in many ways. More than a decade since her first semester, several of her younger relatives have come to UNCG.
Her own education continues to evolve so that she can reach even more students. She is now pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership and cultural foundations. She returned to UTLC this year as an educational developer, helping faculty identify and improve students’ sense of belonging in the classroom. “I hope to be a voice for students,” she says. “Having the perspective of a student, staff, a teacher, and now a Ph.D. student, I bring all the different roles that I’ve played at UNCG and put that into faculty development.”
With each step of her academic journey, faculty and staff encouragement has made a difference. “The people in UTLC were the ones that actually pushed me to want to get a Ph.D. They said, ‘You can do this.’ They believed in me so much.”
Maintaining community takes place every day, not just during Hispanic Heritage Month, she says. “Sure, we come together, like we say, ‘Let’s have a fiesta at the fountain.’ But that’s not everything. I want to know people’s names, where they come from. I want them to feel they can come to me with a question, or if they have a challenge at home that we can figure it out together.”
No matter what she does, a part of every job is building relationships. “That’s how it starts,” she says. “Building trust. Building community. It’s about helping one more person get across the finish line.”
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications
Photography by Sean Norona and David Lee Row, University Communications
