SMU official, homeless when he attended university, helps ot

[smupony94]

SMU official, homeless when he attended university, helps others make it as he did

07:52 AM CST on Monday, December 13, 2010

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

The story of Raul Magdaleno can be summed up like this: He went from homeless to the Park Cities.


Raul Magdaleno, director of diversity and community engagement at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, was embarrassed to live in a shelter while he attended SMU.

While a student at Southern Methodist University, he traveled between those very different worlds every day. He was living in a shelter.

Magdaleno, 30, now works as director of diversity and community engagement at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts. He works with Hispanic students who often face challenges similar to the financial and family issues he experienced while attending the university.

And, along the way, he has collected notable awards. Most recently, on Friday, he received the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Service Award for his volunteer work. He previously won the U.S. Congressional Award Gold Medal for young Americans in 2004, also for service.

Magdaleno didn't always feel welcome on the SMU campus. He felt isolated. He began school as a transfer student after graduating from Mountain View College and Dallas' Skyline High School.

"At community college, we were all struggling," he said. "At SMU, I felt invisible. I felt like I didn't exist. I was so embarrassed to be living in a shelter."

At 26, Magdaleno graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in corporate communications and public affairs. His attitude changed with time, and he helps students transition to the school.

"We can go through our lives complaining about our situation, but I wanted to make sure I'm part of the change," Magdaleno said. "I want to make sure they feel like the most important student on campus."

Baby among 10 kids

The youngest of 10 children, he's the only one to graduate from high school or college. His two brothers spent time in prison, and his seven sisters all dropped out of high school. When Magdaleno was a child, his mother could not read or write in her native language of Spanish, or speak English. She married an abusive man after his father died, he said.

But Magdaleno sought help at an early age. When he was about 13, he began going to a Christian youth group in Old East Dallas offered through the Reconciliation Outreach ministry. Soon after, he became a volunteer.

Dorothy Moore, the organization's founder, recalls a young boy already striving to overcome the odds and help others.

"Raul made up his mind that he was going to make it," she said. "He wasn't going to be destroyed by the circumstances around him." Moore said he began right away to mentor other children.

Veronica Carbajal, one of Magdaleno's older sisters, remembers a boy who acted older than his age. He told other children to stay away from drugs and focus on their schoolwork. He tutored and even dressed as a clown to entertain children.

"He was only a child and he was talking all these major words," she said. "He would tell them about the love of God, and if you think your dad and your mom are not on a good path, not to follow that path."

Academic struggles

But Magdaleno's personal challenges weren't over. He struggled in community college at first, and took remedial math courses to catch up to the college level.

After working full time as a cable company dispatcher while attending college, he earned a scholarship to SMU and then his congressional award. But privately, he was struggling financially to also support his mother and pay doctors bills for another older sister who is disabled. While he was in school, the family moved into The Refuge, a shelter provided by Reconciliation Outreach.

"I reached a breaking point and started living in the shelter I was helping with," Magdaleno said. "I tell people in well-to-do families, 'We are all one step away from being homeless.' I realized that education was the greatest thing I had to fight poverty."

SMU professor Maria Dixon said that initially, she wasn't aware of his struggles. Magdaleno was always smiling and volunteering to help needy people, and she assumed he was just another well-to-do student. Once she discovered he was having trouble putting food on the table, she and other professors pooled money to help.

To Dixon, Magdaleno represents what she said is the university's goal to strive to better reflect the demographics of Dallas.

"He has become the representation of what our board of trustees wants to see – a student from Dallas who has excelled," she said. "He's impacted us by allowing us to remember our moral responsibility to the city of Dallas. He's made it safe for students to envision that they belong here too."

'Amazing students'

Magdaleno also represents the challenges of the many Dallas students who are children of immigrants. His family crossed the border illegally from Mexico City when he was 1 ½ years old. As a result of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act amnesty, he is now is a U.S. citizen. Magdaleno is a passionate supporter of the DREAM Act, which, if passed by Congress, would create a path to permanent residency for illegal immigrant college students brought to the U.S. as children.

"I see the emotional challenges that come along with their feeling a sense of being marginalized by society," he said. "They are some of the most amazing students here."

Magdaleno recently won a $25,000 community grant and leader of the year award through the MillerCoors Lideres program. The grant will aid Parents Step Ahead/Padres un Paso Adelante, a program with which he volunteers that works with parents to involve them in their children's education.

In addition, he worked on bringing to SMU the Hispanic Youth Institute, a summer program offered through the Hispanic College Fund that works to encourage high school students to pursue college. He also has given motivational speeches.

"I wanted to give students going through what I did support," he said. "My hope is that the university will one day reflect the community in which we live."
BACKGROUND: RAUL MAGDALENO

Age: 30

Occupation: Director of diversity and community engagement and special assistant to the dean at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts

Education: Bachelor's degree in corporate communications and public affairs, SMU; associate's degree, Mountain View College; graduate of Dallas ISD's Skyline High School

Awards and honors: 2010 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Service Award, MillerCoors 2010 Lider (Leader) of the Year, 2004 U.S. Congressional Award Gold Medal Award recipient, Recipient of Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, Hispanic College Fund scholar.

Community Involvement: Chairman of the Greater Dallas Hispanic, Asian, Black and GLBT Chamber of Commerce Annual Project; chairman of the Texas Hispanic Youth Institute; chairman of the City of Dallas Red Light Enforcement Commission; Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Advisory Board and board vice president for Reconciliation Academy.

[Harry0569]

Wow. What a great story.

[b_caesar]

Raul is a very cool guy. You don't forget having met him once you do. There aren't that many people on campus about whom you can say that.