Graduate Receives Award from the Clinton Global Initiative University Interweaving elements of her heritage and her University of St. Thomas education, Ximena Murillo developed an international, award-winning humanitarian project. Murillo, a native of Bolivia, grew up traveling with her mother, a teacher, to Bolivian mining villages to teach the miners and their families how to read and write in Spanish. Murillo continues this legacy of service with her project Empowering Women in Mining Communities of Bolivia: Through Education, Information and Training. Murillo’s project commits to create community centers for 1,500 women in 10 different impoverished mining communities. The community centers provide educational and training opportunities which advance the project’s goal of helping women escape poverty by becoming fully literate and independent. Murillo graduated from the University of St. Thomas with a Master of International Business (MIB) in 2008. While at St. Thomas, Murillo continued to work on her program with the help and guidance from her professors. “What I learned in UST’s MIB Program encouraged me to finish the project and submit it to the Clinton Global Initiative University,” Murillo said. “The classes that had the most impact on me were International Political Economy and Regional Study of Latin America with the late Dr. Gustavo Wensjoe,” director of the Center for International Studies. Murillo dedicated her project to Wensjoe, his wife Joanne and his son Julian. In addition, marketing/management professors in the Cameron School of Business Dr. Michele Simms and Dr. Anne Davis became Murillo’s mentors in the classroom and in her professional career. “Ximena Murillo, colleague and friend, is one of those rare persons whose intellectual curiosity and abilities are matched by a compassionate heart,” Simms said. “Her work and her life is the ‘beautiful mind’ in action.” Murillo’s humanitarian efforts were internationally recognized at the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) meeting at the University of Texas in Austin in February 2009. Out of the hundreds of projects submitted, Murillo’s was one of 13 to be featured at the second CGI U meeting; it was also selected to be one of the three commitments to be announced by former President Bill Clinton at the press conference. The program was awarded the CGI U Outstanding 6
Commitment Award, a $2,000 grant for materials and equipment that is supported by the Pat Tillman Foundation. “It is a blessing to have family, mentors and friends who inspire, encourage and ultimately help you to realize your full potential,” Murillo said. “It is this blessing that gives me the drive and determination to help those less fortunate to live in a better world – full of new and different possibilities.” Murillo returns to Bolivia twice a year to work with her sister, Carla, who runs the program in Murillo’s absence. Currently, Murillo works for Texas Inter-Faith in Houston, a non-profit organization that provides affordable housing and supportive services. Like her program in Bolivia, she helps people better themselves through education and training. – Rachel Castillo ’09