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LATINA PROFILE: Aleiah Jones, UT’s new Latino initiatives
program coordinator
By
Kevin Milliken, La Prensa Correspondent
TOLEDO, April 1, 2018:
Aleiah Jones,
30, was named in January as the university’s new Latino
initiatives program coordinator within the university’s
Office of Multicultural Student Success. Ms. Jones serves as
the advisor to UT’s Latino Student Union and is
responsible for Latino-oriented programming. Her focus,
she stated, will be on “recruitment, retention, and graduation”
of Latino students, who now make up about five percent of the
overall UT student population.
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“I hope to be here for as long as possible. I am excited for the
direction the division of student affairs is going, for the
support that we have on campus from the administration,
specifically for the Office of Latino Initiatives,” she
said. “I’ve always said that I hope my career would be able to
end at UT. I am really committed to the institution and for our
students.”
Formerly a UT success coach, Ms. Jones has attended many of
those ongoing meetings and is intimately familiar with the
issues Latino students are facing and the concerns of the
greater Latino community on campus. To some degree, Ms. Jones
feels like she is able to pay it forward for all the mentoring
she received as a young Latina student on campus.
“I had a great experience as a student here,” she recalled,
after transferring to UT from Owens Community College. “I
was not as involved in Latino programming and other things as an
undergraduate, simply because I didn’t really know about it. I
believe I’m able to bring it full circle by being a student and
now working here and to help students have the best experience
that they can have while they’re here.”
One of the initiatives she’s been tasked with is to help improve
the support services on-campus “for graduate students of color.”
So she’ll be reaching out to Latinos pursuing master’s degrees.
“I had great faculty mentors in my department as a grad student,
but I know that’s not true for everyone on campus,” she said.
“Just thinking about ways we can keep our students here for grad
school and how we can support them. That’s something I look
forward to starting in the fall.”
One of her other duties is to interface with UT’s Latino
Faculty and Staff Association, attempting to get them more
involved with students through mentoring and participation in
on-campus programming. Ms. Jones also organizes the Primos
program, which pairs an upper classmen with a Latino freshman as
a mentor. She also will be heavily involved in planning
Hispanic Heritage Month activities at the university.
The Office of Multicultural Student Success offers
monthly programming for three groups which are its main focus:
Latino students, African-American students, and the LGBTQ
community. One recent event was a documentary on the life of
Dolores Huerta, which Ms. Jones stated drew a lot of
at-large Latino community members to campus. Another event in
April features a talk on financial literacy by Sue Cuevas,
who manages the Nueva Esperanza Community Credit Union.
Ms. Jones estimated 200 people attended LSU’s annual
student-led, student-planned scholarship dance on Friday
evening, March 16. Three bands and a DJ provided musical
entertainment. LSU awarded six student scholarships at the 45th
annual dance, including two to incoming freshmen.
“I was pretty happy with the turnout. Of course, we appreciate
that the community always comes out to support this event,” she
said.
Her biggest upcoming event is the annual two-day Latino Youth
Summit, an effort which draws an estimated 500 Latino middle
school and high school students to campus each May to learn
about UT’s offerings and other post-secondary educational
options. The Latino Youth Summit will be held this year
on Tuesday, May 15 for middle school students and the following
day for high school students. The registration deadline is April
25. Ms. Jones is still seeking volunteers from the adult
Latino community to help in the effort that day to serve as
guides and mentors.
“This year we’re excited to be partnering with some of our local
(skilled) trades, so students can learn not only about higher
education options, but other things,” said Ms. Jones.
She grew up in North Toledo with whom she calls her best friend,
her twin brother. The pair would have attended Woodward High
School, but chose to be home-schooled by their parents so
they could “do their own thing,” which turned out to be “a
really unique experience,” according to Ms. Jones. She also
stated it prepared her to be independent; she needed to succeed
in college.
Ms. Jones and her twin brother are the first in their family to
graduate from college. She has earned a master’s (2013) and a
bachelor’s (2011) degree in Sociology, both at the
University of Toledo. She served as a graduate assistant and
also is an adjunct instructor at the university.
Ms. Jones also worked at Adelante, Inc. for a year as
programming director. She serves as president of the UT
Latino Alumni Affiliate and as treasurer of Latino
Alliance of Northwest Ohio, Inc.
“I think it had a huge effect, for not only my position being
brought back, but also the appointment of Dr. Michele Soliz
for a vice president position,” she said. “I think both of those
key staff positions really were a result of those meetings of
the alliance meeting with the (UT) administration.”
The two sides continue to meet monthly to plan events and
programming. One upcoming event is an information night for
families on April 19, 2018, 6-8:00PM, at the East Toledo
Family Center, 1020 Varland Avenue, called ¡SOMOS UT!,
which is also sponsored by UT’s Office of Diversity and
Inclusion.
“The voice of Latinos on campus and in the community I
absolutely know is being heard by the administration and is
something that we are continuing to do,” said Ms. Jones. “We are
working on recruitment events and continue to meet. It’s a
continued conversation with the community and with the
administration. I absolutely know those conversations were a
great influence on these positions. I would not say where we are
is perfect by any means with the recruitment, retention, and
graduation rates of our Latino students. We still have a lot of
work to do and we know the support of the community is
absolutely necessary in that.”
On the Internet:
http://www.utoledo.edu/studentaffairs/omss/
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