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Date: 5/3/2022
HOLYOKE – Julissa Colon was once a young Latina woman in the Holyoke Community College (HCC) community and did not always feel like she had the right support in finding herself and career as a young adult. Now Colon looks to take her experiences and use them toward helping the next generation of Latinx and Hispanic students at HCC.
Colon was named director of HCC’s new El Centro Department that will officially open in the fall. According to Colon, El Centro’s vision aspires to provide a Hispanic thriving learning community to meet the needs of Latinx students, where they can receive culturally responsive guidance and support essential to achieve academic success, advancement and a sense of belonging.
The opening of this department and resource for students has been a long time coming according to Colon.
“This work didn’t just start, I think that’s one of the really important parts about kind of the story of El Centro,” said Colon. “The idea of El Centro started 20 years ago with community folks, school district people, and community college folks saying our students are not getting what they deserve, they’re not getting what they need, and they’re not being successful because of that.”
She added previous iterations of similar programs has led to this. Colon said the proposal for this department came forward from the Hispanic Leadership Committee on campus that is made up of Latinx faculty and staff.
“The institution accepted it, approved it, said yes we want to commit to this in a way that had never been done before with this incredible space and a dedicated staff,” Colon said.
Growing up in Holyoke and Springfield raised by a single mother, Colon went through high school in the Springfield Public Schools before taking a semester of community college after graduation. Shortly after, Colon was expecting her first child at 18 and that derailed her initial plans for college.
Colon started working to make ends meet and was not really focused on a plan for her career going forward. She credited being lucky to work with supportive coworkers who encouraged her to go back to school at places with “beautiful communities built,” from office jobs to a waitress at Bickford’s.
Eventually Colon found herself working for the human services organization Abilities Unlimited, where she received more encouragement from her work community to find her skills, move up and keep going places. That’s when Colon applied and was accepted to the Gateway to College program at HCC.
With only a high school diploma, Colon was worried about meeting the expectations of this new position.
“I was really worried about not having what it takes, because I hadn’t necessarily been encouraged throughout my life that I had what it took,” Colon said.
Colon began working with students who had dropped out, were in danger of failing or had taken a different path in graduating high school. Many of the students Colon would serve were Hispanic and came from similar situations like hers which allowed her to take some of her own experiences in teaching students lessons while she helped them.
She added being Puerto Rican and bilingual was really helpful for her in working with families. Her new team in the Gateway to College program gave her the opportunities to learn so much about higher education and serving students.
“I also learned about how community and expectations and kindness kind of all serve students in a much greater capacity than just thinking about it as academics,” Colon said.
Colon said as her time in the program progressed, she was encouraged by staff she worked with to go back to school and get her associates degree. Colon decided to do just that and worked full time while taking classes at night. She eventually graduated from HCC and received her associates degree.
“One of the proudest moments of my life, with my mom and kids and my partner. It was really, really beautiful,” Colon said.
Colon kept going from there and earned a scholarship at Smith College to go for her bachelors. Still working full time with the Gateway program, Colon received her bachelors in Latin American studies and a minor in history. She was then able to move positions within the Gateway program and serve students more as a traditional councilor while still focused on the same goals for her students.
After 11 years with HCC, Colon is currently in her final semester of a masters program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She said she is so happy and proud of her work put in through school but she is done for sure with school following the completion of her Masters.
When El Centro was being established over the last year, she was approached by those involved with an opportunity to fill in and hold a position that she has been doing through the Gateway program over the years. It was an appeal to her also because El Centro is specifically focused on serving Latinx students.
“I just felt like I had something to offer. I had the passion, the knowledge of the institution. I know how much HCC wants this to work and how much they’re investing in it,” Colon said. “And I just felt like I wanted to be a part of that. Be a part of making that real and making that happen and having a place for our students and they gave me a chance so here I am.”
Colon added it was important to her to have people within the Hispanic community working with the students from the same community as it builds a connection and shows students representation of an important role in education.
“One of the things that I felt was pretty special is that they took a chance on someone from this institution. They allowed someone to grow within their institution and I think that’s an ethos HCC is building and growing,” Colon said. “I think there was something about that, that I am of this community, and I am of this HCC community and giving me an opportunity I think signaled something really beautiful for HCC about what they think about their staff and how they believe in them.”
As Colon continues building her team for the next school year, she feels its her job to bring together a team that will be able to analyze the numbers and “make magic happen” to get it better. She added it was important for her to be serving students holistically.
Being able to work for a Hispanic serving institution like HCC is important to Colon, but she has greater aspirations than just serving her students.
“I always talk about, I don’t want to be Hispanic serving. I want to be a Hispanic thriving institution. I want us to celebrate what our students bring,” Colon said. “I want us to acknowledge this is not deficit based – its not about what’s missing – but what do you bring? And what do you need?”
She added that that is what she thinks really makes El Centro different as they will be providing culturally responsive counseling and work with students through the entire process of what it means to be a student. The main services that will be provided from El Centro to students are academic and transfer advising, wrap around support, career readiness and exploration, financial aid advising and cultural belonging and community engagement.
Colon added being a fully bilingual and bi-cultural staff is important for being culturally responsive and understanding for her students.
As the director of El Centro, Colon said she will definitely be taking some of her past experiences to El Centro and added there is a ton of overlap. While she mainly helped students who had shifts in their high school pathways, many of the issues are still true for adult students as they have responsibilities outside of school that they need proper support for.
Colon said one big takeaway she had from her time working in the Gateway program was having respect for the whole person you are working with.
“I always told my students that sometimes in high school people have you show up and they’re like, ‘This is school, this is where you’re a student, that’s what I expect you to be here.’ And I always thought that was such an odd concept because how do you leave the other pieces of yourself outside the door? How do you not show up, in my case as a mother? As a worker? I don’t just leave those things at the door when I show up.”
Colon added she thinks that is what allows for her students to understand what it means to have to work and do school. While she still firmly believes academics are important and students success in the classroom is what the goal is with El Centro support, Colon said its not attainable by dropping all the other things in your life.
Colon said such a big part of finding success with students who need the support involves establishing that support and respecting her students and where they are in their life.
“I don’t think we do that enough in places of academia, it’s about what are students missing and how do we plug the holes. We have to fit the student,” Colon said.
Colon looks to focus on building strong relationships with students who come to El Centro and use this resource in creating an environment for Hispanic and Latinx students in the HCC community.
“It’s all about the relationships. Them understanding that we care for them and are kind to them and respect them. Not because they are doing well, just because they’re people and you have relationships with them,” Colon said. “It’s a really beautiful thing that I cannot wait for. I see real success for this space because it’s a place that’s needed.”
As Colon continues to process her new role, she feels this is a constellation of things coming together at the right time. Colon credited President Christina Royal for her support of the program and of student experiences and who wants to engage and support the community HCC touches.
Life has come full circle for Colon as she was once a young Latina woman in this community who felt support was lacking, but now can be a part of the leadership to change that for the better.
“It makes me emotional when I think about it because there’s so much talent in our community that never gets to make it,” Colon said. “I just felt like the institution said, ‘We value you, and we are going to give you this chance to bring all the things that matter to the forefront for students who are here now. And though we may not have been able to fix the legacy of what happened in the past, we can serve the people and the vision that they brought to this moment. I feel a real sense of responsibility and respect for the people who brought it to this point, and I feel so much joy being able to be a part of this incredible work.”
Colon added with the work ahead and the potential impact she can make on students makes her naturally a little scared but felt if she wasn’t she probably wouldn’t be the right person for the job.
“I know it’s going to be a lot of work and I’m incredibly grateful to be doing that work,” Colon said.