An interview with Integration Initiative I3 member, Angelo Gonzales, Executive Director of Mission: Graduate
“The great thing about the Integration Initiative is they took the time to talk to individual community members about what their challenges are and what their dreams are. To achieve big goals, it requires collaboration and a sense of community.” Angelo Gonzales, Executive Director, Mission: Graduate
The Albuquerque Living Cities Integration Initiative has big goals. The Initiative and its coalition of the willing are working to reduce the percentage of the population working public sector jobs, reduce unemployment, and create 10,000 new jobs in Albuquerque, all by 2025. With goals of that magnitude, it is easy to imagine how it could get overwhelming to contemplate all the effort that will go into it. But Angelo Gonzales, executive director at Mission: Graduate and an I3 table member in Albuquerque’s Integration Initiative, has a solution: Focus on the individuals.
“While the institutions we’re working with are important,” said Angelo, “I think this is not so much about the intuitions themselves, but about the people that work there. What are we doing to help each and every one of them pursue their dreams?” This principle came from his own work at Mission: Graduate, and he’s glad to see that others in the Initiative apply it and share his sentiment. Even though the goals are huge, Angelo said, it’s the individual lives that are affected and the collaboration it takes to get there, that makes all the difference.
Angelo knows a thing or two about affecting change and big goals. At Mission: Graduate, he’s working to help 60,000 more students earn college degrees and certificates by 2020. “The way I see it,” said Angelo, “Mission: Graduate is about helping people in school. Living Cities is about what happens after that.”
And it’s not just the entrepreneurs and community leaders working with ABQLC that make the work worth while. The Initiative’s leadership brings together a unique group of people from nonprofits, businesses and educational institutions. And ultimately that’s what makes Angelo confident in their success. “There’s a cool synergy when you get people together who are passionate about what they do and are eager to create change. It’s a rare group of talent and energy and commitment that the group represents, and its really cool to be part of it. I really believe this group has what it takes to accomplish what I think is a really big goal but is ultimately achievable with hard work and passion.”
