Paving the Way for Future Generations

Maribel Magallanes grew up in Cicero, Illinois, with her parents and two brothers. She attended Saint Joseph High School, where she was involved in many leadership activities, including student senate and president. As a first-generation student, she then pursued higher education at Taylor University. 

When Maribel first arrived at Taylor she did not know many details about different majors, but she knew she wanted to help people. Initially, she majored in Psychology and soon realized that wasn’t the direction she wanted. “I was taking a course at the school, Social Work 101. I quickly fell in love with [because of the] opportunity to serve your community at the macro and micro levels to serve families. But it's all very much hands-on like coming up with a solution to a problem, and that was one big reason why I quickly switched to social work to work with kids in the foster care system, orphanages, adopted kids, human trafficking cases, which was a big area that I was very passionate about,” said Magallanes. 

Maribel then went on to receive her Master’s degree in Higher Education. At the time, Maribel didn’t know what the degree would have meant for her but she was interested in the opportunity. “As I started studying higher education, I quickly learned that the Lord had already known the skills that he had gifted me with, and he put me in the right area where I was able to use the social work skills that I had learned, but also advance my leadership in a higher education environment. Then, walking alongside students and doing programming was very much like social work. I was working with students on a 1on 1 level and just making sure they were succeeding, and so to me, it kind of brought everything together and it just showed me that God knew all along the route that I needed to pursue. Since I didn't have that guidance, he put people along my path to kind of guide me and put that desire to do that masters, so that's how I ended up in higher education,” said Magallanes. 

When reflecting on why Maribel pursued higher education it was due to the sacrifices her parents made for their family to have better opportunities. “My family never had the opportunity to [attend college]. I  wanted to pave the way for my family to just continue to improve themselves in life, but also for future generations. So to me, it was like it was a desire to make that difference in my family, not to just make a difference in terms of being a first in college, but also to open up opportunities for others in my family to be able to go to college, and also just as a way of thanking my parents for all the hard work. So, I'm grateful that after making that choice to go to college, I've been able to see more people in my family graduate,” said Magallanes. One of the people Maribel has paved the way for is her younger brother, Daniel Magallanes, who is also a Pursue Alum. Also, she convinced her husband to go to college and get his Bachelor’s degree and he’s now a fifth-grade teacher. 

Before Maribel could pave the way for her family, she had to navigate and find support during college. One support system she mentions is the intentional care and campus visits from Pursue Scholars. “I appreciated how Kevin, his team, and Pursue were intentional every semester. At least once a semester, they would visit us and take us out to eat and just spend intentional quality time with us to invest in us to see how we were doing. See what the challenges were so it was nice to be able to talk to someone outside of the university. I was able to see through a different lens some of the challenges that we were facing as Christians or being Hispanic at a predominately white institution, so it was  nice to just be able to have those conversations and be encouraged, be challenged, and motivated along the way,” said Magallanes.

Another thing Maribel appreciated about Pursue Scholars was the care packages and mentors she received. “Even outside of those moments that they visit us, anything that we needed we could always call them. When I was with my roommate, she was a Pursue scholar as well. We knew that we would get a care package in our dorm with full candy, but it meant a lot to us because we never got any care packages. Unlike other students whose families sent them care packages, we didn't because our families didn't have the resources or they didn't even know how to go about the process. Finally, I appreciated that during my last two years with Pursue and Taylor, they connected me with a direct mentor. Her name was Miriam Wallace, she poured into my life and my college roommates’ life every day, and she would email us a Bible verse that was a command and then also a Bible verse that was a blessing over our lives. She will speak life in our lives, but she will also challenge us in a spiritual walk with God. The day of my graduation she was able to meet me in person, but I felt like I had known her for a lot longer like I had already met with her multiple times,” said Magallanes. 

By being surrounded by many mentors, Maribel became a mentor to many students at Taylor University as the Director of student leadership and culture programs. “I worked alongside the student leaders from each cultural organization.  In the process of doing that, I was able to provide opportunities for the university to engage in multiple cultural opportunities and programming. I also oversaw the scholarship programs under the Office of New Culture programs, one of them being the Act Six scholarship, and then as that was coming to an end, I helped create two new scholarships. One of the things that I am most proud of is just walking alongside students. When I first started that role, the students who are seniors now were coming in as prospective students. So I was able to see them from the moment that they engaged with the possibility of going to Taylor, and now they're graduating.  Being able to watch the amazing leaders that they have turned out to be,  and the strong leadership that has impacted the campus while they're there are impacting their communities. They are going to make a huge impact in the world,” said Magallanes. 

Now that Maribel is no longer working at Taylor University, the impact she left on the students is still there. Maribel is currently taking a small break to figure out what the Lord has next in her life while enjoying being a stay-at-home mom with her boys. “ I don't know if God wants me to go back to social work, remain in higher education, or just something different but that's where I'm going to start looking into it. I'll be substituting at the elementary and high school in the meantime,” said Magallanes. 

When reflecting on her next steps and the legacy she wants to leave, Maribel wants the focus to be on Christ as a mentor. “ I don't want the focus to be on me. I want to focus on Christ. That [my mentees] can say that they are true followers of Christ, that they have grown to be leaders that are walking, and living on being the hands and feet of Jesus.

Stories like Maribel's are the reason we are grateful for partners like you. Your gift to Pursue Scholars today will be actively investing in young Chicago leaders and helping them embark on a journey that will truly lead to change.