Laying the Foundation for Higher Education

Dr. Ivonne Diaz-Claisse found her destiny in a middle school classroom. While working at AT&T as an engineer, she joined the company’s group for Hispanic employees and was asked to go speak to a class of middle school students in Newark, New Jersey. She gladly agreed.

Dr. Ivonne Diaz-Claisse“I told my story — what it took for me to achieve my dream — and at the end, the students wanted my autograph,” says Diaz-Claisse, president and CEO of Hispanics Inspiring Students’ Performance and Achievement (HISPA), a nonprofit organization based in New Jersey. “Each student said, ‘Because of you, I’m going to do better in school.’ They were telling me about changes they were going to make based on learning from my story.”

Diaz-Claisse thought that, if she could amplify the impact by her friends and colleagues also accepting similar speaking engagements, they could collectively become role models and change the future of Hispanic Americans. Today, there are over 3,000 HISPA role models nationwide.

“One of the biggest holes that we had in this educational pipeline was the validation, the exposure to role models,” she says.

Mission

HISPA seeks to inspire Latino students to discover their potential and to ignite their desire to embrace education and achieve success. The organization has received financial support from many institutions, including the Educational Testing Service, or ETS.

“Research shows that having role models of the same race and ethnicity with whom you identify directly correlates and contributes to pursuit of and achievement in academic and professional endeavors,” says Kelly Grossman, communications and development manager at HISPA. “Because Hispanics have been historically underrepresented in areas like STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), for example, or in C-Suite (executive corporate) positions, unfortunately so many students question if these things are possible for them.”