Maricella Garcia is grateful to her immigrant parents and grandparents for the life they were able to provide her growing up in Hayward, Calif. She is now dedicating her career to help other immigrants and their children also achieve their dreams.
Garcia was hired recently as the director of Catholic Charities Immigration Services’ Little Rock office. She said she has found her passion educating immigrants about their rights and responsibilities in the United States and trying to help them navigate through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“People want what I have,” she said. “They want to come here not for a better life for themselves but for a better life for their children. I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think we should encourage children to reach better and higher than we have.”
But the 30-year-old did not plan a career in social services. In 1999 her Nicaraguan-born mother and stepfather moved to Arkansas, but Garcia did not plan to relocate with them.
Instead she joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Japan as a chaplain’s assistant. The military service allowed her to earn enough money to graduate with a degree in business from the University of Maryland in 2004. Without that financial assistance, Garcia said she had no way of paying for college.
When she returned to the United States in 2002, she intended to put her business management education to use. She chose to move to Little Rock and was hired as the director of Universidad de Promesa (Promise University), an after-school program for Hispanic children in Little Rock. In addition to tutoring and recreation time, the students attend English as a Second Language classes.
Garcia believes mentoring for first-generation Americans is critical. Research shows that 60 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school, 30 percent go to college and only 12 percent earn a college degree.
Garcia took her experience at Promise University and formed her own non-profit called Lita’s House, which is named in honor of her grandmother who moved to the United States from Nicaragua in the 1960s.
“She always taught us that education is critical. You owe it to yourself to learn about things and participate. I hope to be able to do that for kids in the community,” she said.
Through Lita’s House, Garcia is assisting Hispanic high school juniors and seniors with the process of applying to colleges and writing admission essays. She said these tasks are often difficult for parents who have not been to college and are not fluent in English.
Garcia’s career took another turn in 2006 when she was recruited to join the master’s degree program at the Clinton School of Public Service through the University of Arkansas. Her prominence as a bilingual Latina in Little Rock caught the attention of the school administrators who were looking for a more diverse student body.
As part of the international service project required for the degree, Garcia lived in Nicaragua for three months last summer.
“My grandmother passed away in 2002 and one of her big dreams was for all of us to go to Nicaragua,” she said.
When she returned to the United States in August 2007, Garcia was one of the first students admitted in the dual degree program with the Clinton School and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. While she graduated with her master’s degree in December, she is continuing her legal courses part time and hopes to get a law degree in two years.
Garcia said she was familiar with the work Catholic Charities Immigration Services did for low-income clients, but she never dreamed the position would become available. She believes the position marries her interest in law and education.
“Immigration is really a socioeconomic issue,” She said. “We can put up walls, we can put up borders, but when you are looking at your survival you will do whatever you have to do to make sure you survive.”
Garcia said she hopes to spend a lot of her time educating immigrants about their rights and responsibilities and how many of their actions could bar them permanently from the country.
“If we don’t educate people, they make bad choices that we cannot help them step back from,” she said.
Garcia, who is single, is a self-professed news junkie. She reads the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and several news Web sites and Web logs, known as blogs, every day to stay on top of issues affecting Hispanics in Arkansas.
“I love to read,” she said. “I love to be informed.”
