A Mentor and a Multitasker
By Greta Stuckey
Walking by the Center for Multicultural Affairs on the top floor of the Marist James A. Cannavino Library, one could find Iris Ruiz-Grech handling three to five different tasks all in the span of an hour. As the Director for Multicultural Affairs, the Director of the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) and the liaison for the New York State Foster Youth College Success Initiative, Iris wears many different hats.
“I am literally the queen of multitasking,” Iris says, laughing. “If you shadowed me for one hour in my office, I could be sending an email about an event, working with the office to get a speaker for different events, and trying to do a report.”
Although Iris balances a heavy workload, she is passionate and determined in the work she does on campus and beyond. She began her career at Marist in 1990 as Assistant Director of the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) and was also an adjunct Spanish instructor in the Modern Languages Department from 1991 to 2001. Previously, she was Senior Financial Aid Officer at Columbia College, Columbia University, serving there from 1986 to 1990.
“I don't think people really plan to work in higher education, but for me, it was being in the right place at the right time,” Iris says. “I was born in Brooklyn but at the age of six, due to my father’s health issues, my parents decided to move us back to Puerto Rico. I did all of my secondary education in Puerto Rico, but my sister was older than me and she loved the United States. She knew she wanted to come back and that triggered me to come back.”
Iris returned to the United States to attend college at Tulane University, receiving a B.S. in psychology. Wanting to continue her education, she went on to get her master’s in Higher and Adult Education-Student Personnel Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she was inducted into the Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society in Education.
Iris gained her passion for work in higher education through helping HEOP students. “These are students that are competing with other students that come from college preparatory programs and they are meeting them at the same level,” Iris explains. She highlighted the first Payne Fellow, Lenni Joya ‘19, who was a HEOP student.
“The HEOP program, for the 52 years that it has been on Marist’s campus, has really met the mission of the Marist brothers,” Iris says. “That's what I’m passionate about — it’s the fact that I am opening opportunities to students of all backgrounds. When I became the director, the Governor wanted to eliminate the HEOP program from Marist, so we had to advocate to the state and to the institution that there is value in the program.”
When the construction of the Center for Multicultural Affairs at Marist was complete in 2008, Iris took on more roles. After the center was established, it encompassed the HEOP Program, and helped first-generation college students and international students. After the increase of international students in 2014, International Students Services was formed. Although international students have their own center, every student at Marist is welcome in the Center for Multicultural Affairs.
“In order for students from diverse backgrounds to be successful, you have to support them holistically,” Iris says. “You can’t just address the social piece or the cultural piece, you have to help them see the whole picture. It is important to help the whole person and many times we collaborate with other areas on campus to support the student.”
Illustration by Sydney Kysar
The center faced serious challenges when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. All students and staff were required to work virtually. Prior to the pandemic, students were encouraged to walk into the Center for Multicultural Affairs to talk over tea or hot chocolate. Since the pandemic, Iris and her team have shifted to holding events virtually as well as meeting with their program students online.
“The students are feeling isolated and they are not reaching out,” Iris says. “No matter how much we reach out, students are not wanting to reach back. We went from holding sporadic meetings with our students last year, to being available every week because we know the students need us.”
While many students at Marist may have heard of the Center of Multicultural Affairs, most students don’t realize they can use it as a resource. Iris hopes to spread awareness on campus through clubs and activities to show students that anyone is welcome at the center. While the center has a mission to help students specifically in their program, they are also looking to talk to students from all backgrounds and want to make diversity and inclusion a more widely addressed subject on campus.
“Our department is open to every Marist College student and we want them to know that it’s not the only place, but it could be the starting place, where they have their questions answered and resources available to them,” Iris says. “For me, our alumni are also really important. I connect with them and my mentoring doesn’t finish when students graduate, it continues beyond.”
Although her husband and children see that she is sometimes overworked, they support and understand the significance of her role in higher education. The calling to help others was formed in Iris at a young age when she was growing up in Puerto Rico. Her sister and mother taught her essential qualities to care for others. Her mother also stressed the importance of seeking a life of learning. And through her father, Iris learned ethics and the practice of always finishing a task after committing to it.
“My mother was an ambitious woman, she loved education,” Iris recalls. “Unfortunately, she didn’t come from the privilege that afforded her that. It wasn’t until my senior year in college that my mom started college. She graduated college with honors, and for her, every moment was a teaching moment. I love education and my mother’s passion to keep learning made me never want to be complacent.”
While facing the challenges of the pandemic, Iris has been able to provide students with meaningful resources. She hopes to increase and continue the number of students who graduate from her programs. In addition, she hopes more students on campus will think about the center as a place where they are welcomed and encouraged to come.
“Our institution needs to continue fulfilling the Marist Brothers’ mission of serving the greater good,” Iris says. "Every single piece of our community is important and they allow us to grow. That appreciation has helped get us through this pandemic and it will help us become a progressive institution moving forward.”
FOR THE RECORD UNCUT
OBJECT PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography by Bobby Oliver
For this year’s project, we asked our Changemakers to bring items that had meaning to them to the shoot.
“Book – I Am Enough by Grace Byers and illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo – I chose this book in 2018 because it captured the inclusive community I work with in our department and across our Marist community.
Spanish Poem – it speaks to me about my heritage, my second language and the community that deals with language challenges. Many of our students, as first generation college students, have to be translators for their families not only of language but the complexity of systemic biases. At times all we need is a listening ear and someone who can just give us “un abrazo”/a hug. I strive for the Center for Multicultural Affairs to be the space where everyone can come and get that virtual/physical hug when needed.
Collage – every summer we hold in our department the HEOP Summer Program. One of our bonding activities is to share a name of a person we are in charge of learning about and capturing what we learn in a collage. This is what one student and their peers thought of me at the end of their summer program. That was a class that bonded well, supported each other, and everyone is now a proud Marist Alum. We proud to see that 100% of that class graduated.”