2012 Winner
Marc Coronado, De Anza College
Latina/o Empowerment at De Anza (LEAD) was created collaboratively by 16 students and 2 faculty members in the summer of 2006. The program has generated an inclusive and supportive campus climate for students from specific ethnic groups. LEAD has created an opportunity to learn leadership and basic English writing skills, work on issues in their own communities through direct service, and build powerful alliances across ethnic lines.
Since its inception, the LEAD Program has become a powerful force for supporting Latina/o student engagement, development, and academic success through individual, college, and community support. And while many aspects of this program are steadily becoming institutionalized, its impact is without question due to the extraordinary commitment, passion and persistent dedication of time and energy that Marc Coronado relentlessly brings to this program.
The root of Marc Coronado's strength is in her desire and capacity to make a personal connection with her students, who come from a very wide range of backgrounds. The LEAD Program encourages and celebrates the involvement of students of diverse racial and ethnic ancestry. Her vision and practice rests squarely on the import and validity of every individual's experience-especially those dimensions that may have been historically and systematically ignored or devalued.
Marc has been invaluable in creating the organizational structures and campus context for engaged diversity; a context where students, faculty, and community partners from across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic class lines work together and develop meaningful relationships as they take action and learn collaboratively to make a positive difference in the world.