Hawaii Hispanic News
Page 10 - April 2011
Dominican Latino leads major national non-profit initiative section of Manhattan. The “Heights” are known widely as a Dominican WASHINGTON, D.C. – Disasters, neighborhood. He said: “I grew up in the New York like the recent Japan tragedy, bring out many bogus non-profits. Guidestar’s City public school system. Most of the (www.guidestar.org) mission is to: “To teens my age were having babies or not revolutionize philanthropy by providing going to school. Seeing guns at school information that advances transparency, was a common occurrence. Each day, enables users to make better decisions, when I entered my high school, which and encourages charitable giving.” To was on 33rd St, three blocks from the many of us that have worked in the Empire State Building, I had to walk non-profit world, Guidestar is the “CNN” through a metal detector and x-rays just industry standard go-to agency to get to get into school.” He continued: “I remember seeing reliable information on U.S. nonprofits. students going crazy, Guidestar is one way fights, blood in the to ensure a donor’s hallways, etc. Knives money is going to a and ice picks were legitimate agency. almost standard José Fernández issue. I saw a student is director of the slam a door into a GuideStar Exchange. professor’s hand so That’s the program hard it broke the tip that encourages of his finger right off. nonprofits to share upI don’t remember the to-date information exact number, but our about their missions, school had roughly programs, leadership 2,000 students and teams, and social there were only 70 in impact. It’s a free our graduating class. service which What made a allows nonprofit difference for him? o rg a n i z a t i o n s t o He said: “My parents. add and update information about their organizations They always instilled in us that the came to a master database used by 22,000 to this country so that we would have a visitors every day. Here grant makers, better life. We knew they struggled in donors, volunteers and decision makers NYC to find a place to live, to find jobs. have access to accurate and transparent My dad worked as a janitor in an office information about organizations so they building. We saw how hard they worked, can better determine which organizations so that incented us to work hard too. I to fund, support and become involved remember collecting aluminum cans and taking them to start to collect the five with. Before joining GuideStar, Fernández cents. That was my allowance.” After graduation, Fernández attended was a program manager at the American Association for the Advancement of the State University of New York Science, where he assisted in the (SUNY) at Oswego – a five hour drive development of two niche social upstate from the city. He said: “Oswego networks and managed the development is a great little town. I remember getting up there with a bunch of Dominican and of the grants database GrantsNet. Fernández’s parents came to New Puerto Ricans teens from the city. A few York City 30 years. He was born in the months later, I was one of the very few Bronx and, along with his three brothers, still there. Many of them transferred out grew up in the Washington Heights because they couldn’t stand the winter. By JoséVilla, Senior Editor
I graduated with bachelors in marketing and minored in economics.” What was living in Oswego like for him? He said: “I chose to go to SUNYOswego to get away from the life I saw around me. So I went up there with an open mind and open arms. I knew life was going to be very different, but I knew if I wanted my life to be different, the change had to start with me. Eating nonDominican food was a huge adjustment. A Dominican friend and I cook our own Latin food, because it’s part of our culture and we missed it.” He continued: “Diversity was new to me. Everybody I knew in the city was Dominican or Puerto Rican, but all our teachers were white. That was my view of the world growing up. All authority figures were white, and then there were the rest of us. So leaving the big city, and going to a small town community that was 95% white, was a huge cultural shock for me. However, it was the right thing to do and greatly expanded my view of the world.” Fernández graduated from SUNY – Oswego in 1999. He went back to the city and tried to break into the advertising
industry, but he found it very difficult. A fellow Oswego graduate moved to D.C. to live with family and encouraged me to interview there. I hesitated, but reluctantly applied for several positions and started getting interview requests. So I accepted a position with a D.C. nonprofit for two years, and 10 years later, I’m still living here.” While at that non-profit, he enrolled in the George Washington University Executive MBA program and graduated, while holding a full-time job. A couple of weeks after graduation, he got a call from a recruiter. A few weeks after that, he accepted a position at GuideStar, where, ironically, he wound up working with another SUNY-Oswego classmate. One thing I found particularly gratifying about his story is how proud his parents are of him. He said when his dad came to visit his office, he said: “All the years I was cleaning offices like this, I dreamed that one day my kids would be working in offices like these. You’ve made me very proud.” There are so many individuals in our Hispanic community – and others – that can relate to his dad’s joy.