First Gen Success Leads To A Lifetime of Advocacy: Meet Tony Montoya

Meet Tony Montoya?former Assistant Dean and Assistant VP of Academic and Student Affairs at University of Northern Colorado

Tony, what is your personal narrative? What key moments in your life led you to where you are?

As I reflect on my life in retrospect I realize that besides my family supporting me and being “there” for me during tough times, school officials didn’t expect much out of me beyond high school graduation. Therefore, I was on my own. According to many of my Latino friends and colleagues it was the case with most of them as well. To be honest, the same was probably true of my classmates who came from lower economic backgrounds regardless of ethnicity. I would like to think it wasn’t racially motivated but rather an effort of school officials to do the best they could with what the had to work with. Don’t get me wrong, in some cases race came into play as far as resources, opportunities, support, and encouragement to consider higher education as an option beyond high school.

In spite of coming from a small rural community with limited financial resources, as a family my parents did their best to make sure we had what we needed and always supported us in many ways. Education was very high on their list. As with many Latino families the support included my siblings as well. If I had to describe my early years I would say that my parents expectations were that we work in the summers to help support the family, from our early years and through high school.

Key moments include being the first to graduate from high school, entering the Colorado National Guard, entering college, being selected as a National Urban Fellow and receiving a Master’s degree. Also, serving as the Assistant Dean at?Metropolitan State University?in Denver, the Assistant Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at the?University of Northern Colorado, and President of the District 70 school board. Like most fathers, the birth of my three daughters, Shelly, Cari, and Hanna are certainly very important to me. At the risk of getting too personal I would have to include my marriages and the impact these two women had on me to move forward with my education in order to support my children and become a more positive role model and realize the importance of committing myself to a person and a cause. It is important to note that relationships, good or bad, helped me choose, to become better stewards of my family and community.

How does your role with the League of Latin American Citizens help open doors for others? What goals do you have for yourself in this role?

I have been involved in community advocacy for more than forty years. This all started when a dear friend asked me to attend an?Incorporated Mexican American Government Employee?(IMAGE) meeting. The organization purpose was to assist Federal and State employees with promotional strategies to move up in their profession and to become familiar with methods to learning to improve their job qualifications. It also assisted applicants to complete employment applications and develop effective resumes. The organization also served as an advocate in employment discrimination cases and supported individuals with filing complaints related to unfair employment practices, and raising funds for scholarships.

As a result of my initial involvement with IMAGE, whose efforts expanded beyond government employment, I started working with the?League of United Latin American Citizens?(LULAC), which had many of the same goals. As a member of the organizations I held various offices and am currently the Vice President of Council 3043 located in Pueblo Colorado. It is important to understand that because of my initial involvement with Image and LULAC, my confidence grew and my knowledge of the need for more individuals to get involved grew and I couldn’t stop myself from getting involved in other organizations that supported the community - be it the elderly, youth, school administration, funds for scholarship, or mentoring.

My goal at this point is to continue doing what I do and encouraging the younger generation to get involved and to take up the effort to educate and support individuals struggling to complete their educational goals.

What were the biggest personal and professional benefits of attending GlobalMindED 2022?

As a retired educator, and still active member in the community, the GlobalMindED conference helped to reinforce the need to stay involved in community advocacy, especially in education. It was interesting to hear the pleas and concerns from other attendees about the lack of support for various academic and support services areas. It reminded me of the need to re-evaluate efforts, or lack of efforts to support student affairs departments. There appears to still be a lack of commitment and understanding that the “whole” student needs to be considered if institutions want to recruit, retain, and graduate students, especially low-income, “minorities,” and first generation students. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding and commitment by the academic side of colleges to commit to understand the way first generation and low-income students learn and the support they need to be successful in completing their college degree.

What advice would you give to future Inclusive Inspirational Leaders?

I believe more emphasis must be given to the whole student, body, mind, and soul, which includes attention to students transitioning into college life, providing role models in the classroom, including professors who are from various representative groups (they look like non-traditional students), and understanding the limitations caused by low self-esteem, income levels, pressure from families, and a lack of understanding of cultural norms and beliefs.

My advice to our education leaders would be to advocate in the strongest way possible to their presidents and vice presidents to provide more support to student affairs department and to also consider adjusting their focus on developing new strategies for retaining and supporting students. It was pointed out at one of the workshops I attended that the academic side of higher education institutions has been a large obstacle to creating or developing methods to support “minority,” low–income, and non-traditional students. Therefore, an extreme amount of effort must be put forward in changing the mindset of faculty and administration.

Clearly there has been a lack support for students who don’t fit historically college bound student profiles. Thus colleges must make adjustments to their retention strategies if they want to retain non-traditional students. After all, they are the next generation of students in the workforce. Higher education institution must also make every effort to employ individuals in higher levels of their institutions that understand the struggle students go through provide the necessary support that will lead to higher graduation rates.