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Vanessa Rodriguez ’95 was named the winner of the 2012 John A. Dinneen, SJ, Hispanic Alumni Community Service Award, in recognition of her dedication to a public education career and her leadership and service to thousands of alternative school students as the CEO of District 79 Alternative Schools and Programs of the New York City Department of Education.
Rodriguez was presented with the award at the March 31 Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Committee annual dinner, where this year’s Romero Scholarship winner also was announced [see separate story].
District 79 is a citywide network of more than 300 alternative schools and programs serving more than 65,000 students, 18,000 of them Latino. As noted in Rodriguez’s award nomination, many of the Latino students served through the network include immigrants with interrupted schooling, students in juvenile detention centers and those who have left the regular school due to teenage pregnancy and other life circumstances.
“Ms. Rodriguez creates a climate among her faculty and staff that does not allow deficit views of multicultural and multilingual students,” her nomination read. “Instead, she strives to obtain the most qualified and committed individuals and is herself committed to getting Latino students transferred back into the regular New York City public school system, where they can receive their high school diploma.”
Rodriguez was the founding director of the New York City Institute, where for seven years she prepared 900 teachers and 120 teacher advisors to work in low-income urban public schools across the country. She also served as national director of recruitment and admissions for New Leaders for New Schools, a national non-profit organization that identifies and prepares the next generation of urban school principals.
A Hartford native, Rodriguez studied sociology and minored in education at Boston College. She was a founding member of the student group Diverse Individuals Vowing Everlasting Responsibility for Superior Education (DIVERSE), a member of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College, a service trip participant in Mexico, and a mentor in the Options Through Education transitional summer program.
The Dinneen Award is named for late Rev. John A. Dinneen, SJ, a mentor and benefactor to the members of the Romero Scholarship Committee and the BC AHANA community.