Kosciusko Leadership Academy Holds First Diversity Session
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Hosted at the Kosciusko Community YMCA, Kosciusko Leadership Academy recently held its first-ever session on diversity in Kosciusko County titled “Latino Initiatives in Kosciusko County.”
Moderator Allyn Decker explained the purpose of the session: “We want everyone to feel welcome regardless of background, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the barriers to thriving are hidden.”
The presenting panel had four Latina women: Marlene Mulero-Betances, president and CEO of EnPak LLC; Noemi Ponce, Spanish educator and co-sponsor of LatinxVision Club at Warsaw Community Schools; Liliana Quinter, executive director of the Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition; and Fabiola Nuñez, representing Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
Betances, who was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, talked about prioritizing her education when she was younger as she “knew it was [her] pathway out.” Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Cornell University, she started at Johnson and Johnson and moved to Warsaw when the company bought DePuy.
Betances was named the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s Woman of the Year for 2018. She has been involved in Latino business initiatives through the Chamber, and pushes to find answers to the questions: Who are the groups who are segregated? What are their need? And what are the barriers?
Quinter, who also has a degree in engineering, came to the United States to finish her MBA in 2002. After working at Bosch, she became the director of the Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition 15 years ago.
Explained Quinter, “What was my ministry became my job.”
Nuñez covered initiatives in religion, while Ponce covered initiatives in education to reach Latinos.
Ponce, whose parents are form Mexico, was born in Texas and raised in Warsaw. She recently started working at WCS after being at Tippecanoe Valley Schools for five years, and also started the LatinxVision club.
All four women talked about the difficulties the Latino community faces.
A common theme expressed by the panel was the problem of feeling afraid in your community. Ponce explained, “When you don’t have documentation, you don’t want to leave your house.”
The solution, Quinter said, is not in a to-do list, but in real behavior change.
Betances said, “A lot of hearts are in the right place, it just comes down to educating people to help them know how to not be unintentionally hurtful.”
Decker summarized, “Fear of newcomers comes down to having a scarcity mindset instead of a growth mindset. Do you think, ‘’They will come in and take our jobs!’ or do you think, ‘If they don’t come and take jobs, those jobs will go elsewhere and our community will suffer.’”
