Student Commencement Speaker: Araceli Cruz
Open gallery
Araceli Cruz is an assistant director of financial aid at Lewis & Clark College and soon to be a graduate of the Student Affairs Administration Program. Her work focuses on breaking down barriers for historically marginalized students to access and thrive in higher education. The Student Affairs Administration program has helped her understand how to mitigate policies and procedures that may produce inequalities for marginalized communities in higher education. Araceli’s future career goals including becoming a university president.
Her work has been presented at the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education regional conference and is under review for an upcoming edited volume on a collection of narratives detailing the experiences of student affairs professionals of color in higher education. Her contribution offers recommendations for success for student affairs professionals of color and ways they can construct opportunities to flourish.
Araceli currently serves as a board member of the Portland Leadership Foundation and is the Co-Chair of the Equity Diversity Inclusion committee for the Oregon Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. In addition, Araceli serves on various scholarship selection committees and volunteers with local college readiness programs.
Araceli received her bachelor’s degree from Linfield College where she majored in Sociology and Spanish. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her husband and spending time with her family.
