A leader and connector for Latinx, farmworker, and migrant communities in the Mid-Willamette Valley

Jaime Arredondo BA'05 strives to utilize his love for serving others where it can help the most. As the executive director of CAPACES Leadership Institute, Arredondo has created positive change within some of the most important, and most underserved, groups who keep the economy of the Willamette Valley thriving. CAPACES provides educational and leadership development programming to over 2,500 Latinx, immigrant, Indigena, Afrodescendiente, and farmworkers in the Mid-Willamette Valley.

Arredondo was recently approached by Mike McNalley, owner of Fairsing Vineyards in Yamhill, Ore., to form Primeros Pasos, a consortium of regional early childhood agencies and institutions promoting early childhood education and care for Latinx communities.

Primeros Pasos hopes to enroll 300 new teachers in college and community-based training, increase service to 1,500 more children, open new family care homes, and create a Latinx-specific curriculum in Oregon. "We're putting together these career pathways, and we're going to roll out a bunch of training and support, including scholarships," Arredondo says. "It's going to be very robust."

Arredondo, a father of four, holds education close to his heart. "Primeros Pasos is looking to find ways to take care of families, which really touched me, coming from an agricultural family," Arredondo says. "I was like, let's bring people together who are doing this work already."

Arredondo's road to Primeros Pasos is lined with a commitment to community fostered by his days as a Civic Communication and Media (formerly Rhetoric and Media Studies) and Spanish major at Willamette University. He cites his classes with the late Nathaniel "Nacho" Córdova for helping him become the person he is. "Nacho Córdova taught a course in Rhetoric and Media Studies, Latino Voices, and I found my voice in that class." Córdova became Arredondo's advisor and mentor. "He just saw the assets in human beings and definitely changed my life."

As a student living in Salem, Arredondo says it was natural for him to "build bridges for students and bring people out to the neighborhood to see outside of Willamette." During his time on campus, he established after-school programs at a local middle school for cultural events and brought the community in for university events.

Arredondo says his own children motivate him to serve the community. "Ensuring that my children and their peers have a bright future inspires me," he says. "When I look at their eyes, I can see the endless possibilities for the generations ahead of them."