The Seahawk

Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: News

After a leadership position was created within UNCW's diversity program, Jose Hernandez, who is now the Associate Provost of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, couldn't help but seize the opportunity.

Given the chance to oversee the units of the UNCW diversity program, Dr. Hernandez hopes to provide leadership while listening to students and the community, as well as meeting their needs.

The four facets of the program include Centro Hispano, The Multicultural Center, The Upperman African-American Cultural Center and an up-and-coming unit involving women's studies.

After residing in Wilmington for only three weeks, Hernandez already has many specific goals for the program. Some of these goals include creating an annual symposium at UNCW to present the program's practices, increasing the diversity of enrolling students, creating a welcoming school climate for incoming minority students and implementing a mentoring program for minority students in local high schools.

"I also want to increase faculty diversity," Hernandez said.

Hernandez claims that learning about diversity helps to "open the mind to the perspective of the world." He believes that everyone falls under the "umbrella of diversity" and no two people are the same.

He is, however, concerned that his mission could be misinterpreted. His goals in the program are to address historically challenging issues for minorities and to create ways to increase awareness of their options, post high school graduation.

Hernandez came to UNCW after spending the past five-and-a-half years working for the University of South Florida in a similar diversity program. He taught in a counseling program and within the School of Education.

Hernandez claims that his early life highly contributed to his success. Born and raised in Cuba, he has been influenced by family and his Hispanic heritage. When he was 9 years old, he moved to Puerto Rico and worked in a factory to help support his family. To this day, Hernandez still helps support his family back home.

When he turned 18, Hernandez moved to Florida and attended Florida State where he received his Bachelors in psychology and Masters in education. Hernandez then completed his Doctorate at the University of Central Florida.

After this, Hernandez was presented with the opportunity to teach at a historically black college called Bethune/Cookman. He worked for 13 years in the College of Education and as the Director of children and family services. Hernandez also worked with mental health centers and continues to use this knowledge in his work today.

Hernandez accepts that "diversity is a journey," and his mission of "changing the cultural way we frame diversity and inclusion" shows that he will strive to make a difference within our campus and community.

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