Julio Enríquez-Ornelas ’08 dreamed of returning to Wabash after graduation, but he never expected things to work out. This semester, he began his job as the inaugural Director of Latino Partnerships for Wabash.
In this position, Enríquez-Ornelas will work to foster relationships with Latino members of the Crawfordsville community, serve as an advisor to La Alianza and oversee activities at the soon-to-be built Latino Community Center. Because of the infancy of this initiative, it remains to be seen exactly what shape the job will take.
“Our goal this semester is getting to know who the stakeholders are, getting to know our community partners, getting a sense of what some of the needs are in the community and how many of those needs overlap with the needs of our guys here on campus,” said Enríquez-Ornelas.
This year, Enríquez-Ornelas is excited to begin the programming that he hopes will become a staple at Wabash. Enríquez-Ornelas expects to partner with a local elementary school, United Way Initiative and other local community organizations where students will volunteer and begin to form relationships with members of the Crawfordsville community.
“For this fall, we have plenty planned, including leadership training, alumni talks/presentations and partnerships with other local organizations to give back to the community,” said Vice President of La Alianza Juan Calvillo ’26.
Beyond improving relationships with the Crawfordsville community, Enríquez-Ornelas will advise La Alianza, a student organization celebrating Latino American culture that has gained impressive prominence in the past years.
“I think the Latino Partnership position is going to positively affect La Alianza in many ways, with the biggest being helping us zone-in on what exactly we stand for as a club here at Wabash,” said Calvillo ’26. “It has also helped us get into contact with and retain more alumni connections who want to be a part of seeing this club continue to grow not only in size but also in outreach.”
If not for La Alianza contacting Enríquez-Ornelas while he worked at Millikin University as Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and served as Coordinator for the Global Studies and Spanish Education, it’s possible he wouldn’t have returned to Wabash.
“Initially, La Alianza reconnected and reached out to me when I was at Milliken,” said Enríquez-Ornelas. “They started engaging in conversation with me and saying ‘Hey, are you interested in coming back and coming to this event’ or telling me about what they were doing and the leadership at the time. They introduced themselves to me and because I was only two hours away. I found ways to attend their Spring Festival and then the Chapel Talk I gave in 2022.”
The importance of the moment is not lost on Enríquez-Ornelas. As the inaugural director, he is building from the ground up, while simultaneously defining what the initiative will entail.
“I really want to make sure that whatever I do as the first director sets a foundation for future directors,” said Enríquez-Ornelas.