Megan Kuykendoll became Miami University's first Latino community coordinator earlier this semester-with a chance to make this new position her own.
"My main job is to establish and maintain relationships between the Latino community, the agencies that serve that community and the university," Kuykendoll said. "Some of the stereotypes about Miami do not make it seem like a safe and welcoming place for Latinos."
One aspect of her job, as listed in her job description, is working in conjunction with the Center for American and World Cultures (CAWC) and the Office of Community Service and Engagement to help create mutually beneficial relationships between Miami University and the Latino communities in southwestern Ohio.
While Kuykendoll is the one actually pursuing relationships with Latino communities, these departments assist her in contacting agencies that are already part of Latino communities and connecting with Miami students.
"To my knowledge this is the first time we are taking a specific approach with a specific ethnic community other than the work that is done with the Miami tribe," said Monica Ways, director of community engagement and service at Miami.
According to Mary Jane Berman, the director of the CAWC, while the position of Latino community coordinator is unique, the precedent for the position came out of another outreach position, the Latin American community outreach coordinator.
Kuykendoll is also involved with bringing speakers, such as Dan La Botz-who will present "Latino Immigrants: Hidden in Ohio" at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in MacMillan Hall-to campus.
"La Botz's lecture topic correlates directly with the work that I am doing," Kuykendoll said. "This is a community of immigrants whose story has been ignored or improperly portrayed and I feel that is something that both of our work seeks to correct."
La Botz is a visiting professor of history at Miami University Hamilton and the lecture is part of the CAWC lecture series on Diversity: Engaging Your Global Future Now and the UniDiversity program.
La Botz is a historian, writer, activist and educator. According to Berman, La Botz's direct knowledge and experience working with immigrant communities grants him the insight few historians have.
La Botz has worked with many grassroots movements and he represents everything that Kuykendoll and her team hope to bring to Miami.
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"What we need is to better educate people on issues related to immigration in general as a part of the history of the United States," said Jacqueline Velarde Rioja, assistant director for the CAWC. "The U.S. is a country of immigrants."
According to Sally Lloyd, the interim associate vice president for institutional diversity, La Botz's lecture and Kuykendoll's position are based recognition of the growing community in southwestern Ohio.
According to Lloyd, lecturers such as La Botz and the work that Kuykendoll is doing will help to create a campus of more diverse thought.
"Megan's (Kuykendoll) position was put in place in recognition of a growing community," Lloyd said. "We really want to make connections with all different kinds of folks and different kinds of opinions."
Currently, Kuykendoll is involved in working with the Latino community in Hamilton.
"We have been guiding her in the development of key relationships with community people, agency reps and others so she can use those relationships as a foundation for understanding better what it is that would benefit a campus community interaction around a specific population," Ways said.
Kuykendoll spends time each week in Hamilton working with existing organizations such as Living Water Ministries and Butler/Warren County Workers Center. These organizations assist Latino community members with everything from filling out tax return forms to completing passport applications.
"(We assist them with) basically anything that would be difficult if English was not your first language," Kuykendoll said.
Kuykendoll said with successful programs such as Adopt a School and America Reads that are already involved with the Latino population at Living Water Ministries in Hamilton, there are great opportunities for Miami students and the Latino community to interact and learn from each other.
According to Kuykendoll, Miami students can benefit from these interactions away from Oxford.
"The bubble atmosphere is not really beneficial to a growing person," Kuykendoll said. "It's important to really experience other cultures and other experiences of American life. Everybody can learn from everybody else."
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