{"id":188375,"date":"2021-04-14T10:50:24","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T14:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/?p=188375"},"modified":"2021-04-22T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T19:25:51","slug":"it-takes-a-pueblo-latinx-leader-iliana-santillan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cals.ncsu.edu\/news\/it-takes-a-pueblo-latinx-leader-iliana-santillan\/","title":{"rendered":"It Takes a Pueblo: Latinx Leader Iliana Santill\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iliana Santill\u00e1n understands firsthand the issues facing the Latinx community. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumna has spent much of her career advocating for change for Latinx people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to earning a Master of Youth, Family, and Community Sciences (YFCS) from NC State University, Santill\u00e1n spent her early childhood in Mexico City, Mexico. After her parents separated, she moved to the United States with her mother and brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy aunts, uncles, and cousins picked berries in Washington state, moved to Florida to pick oranges, and then Texas for other crops. They were migrant workers and did that for about five years before settling down. They told my mom, \u2018You should come here with the kids. We can help you out, provide a better future for them,\u2019\u201d Santill\u00e1n remembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santill\u00e1n spent the next 12 years in Washington, attending both high school and college there. She enrolled at Western Washington University, but soon withdrew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was not prepared. My family was not prepared. I lived at home and didn’t understand a lot of how anything worked,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is why it\u2019s important to have programs that prepare students like myself and their families for college.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santill\u00e1n soon moved to North Carolina where she became an instructional assistant at a local elementary school in Sanford teaching English as a second language (ESL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey gave me sight words and said, \u2018Teach these students how to read.\u2019 And I remember thinking to myself, \u2018There has to be a better way. This child doesn’t speak English. They don’t know how to read and I’m showing her letters on an index card?\u2019\u201d Santill\u00e1n says that lit something inside her and she decided to go back to college to earn her degree, this time at Meredith College in Raleigh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOftentimes with ESL students, we’re so caught up with the reading and writing …  and it felt like we were lagging in the speaking part. I took it upon myself to really spend time just talking with my students, and that’s when I started hearing stories about their neighborhoods and their personal lives,\u201d says Santill\u00e1n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She recalls hearing stories about mold in her students\u2019 homes, family members getting deported and her students being too afraid to go outside because police officers were in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I started hearing about the situations my students were going through, I wanted to figure out ways to help them but also their families,\u201d says Santill\u00e1n. “There has to be something I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Santill\u00e1n started looking at getting a master\u2019s degree and also opportunities where she could do more for her students. As a first-generation immigrant and ESL student herself, Santill\u00e1n could relate to her students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFacing teachers who don’t think you’re going to make it to college \u2026 or if you speak ESL, your grades are not going to be that good,\u201d Santill\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She discovered CALS\u2019 Youth, Family and Community Sciences online master\u2019s degree program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n