Florencio U. Aranda III spoke during TCC’s Elevate speaker series about his expertise in aiding Hispanic students
EVELYN HERRERA
reporter
collegian.editor@tccd.edu
Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education’s president-elect inspired viewers at a Feb. 10 virtual event as he shared his educational and organizational leadership experience.
Florencio U. Aranda III, TCU’s coordinator of diversity and inclusion initiatives, who spoke as part of the TCC Elevate speaker series, reflected on impactful moments of his life that propelled him to take a higher interest in education.
“Dr. Aranda strives to be an agent of change for diverse communities and has made it his mission to serve others and to lead by example in the educational, political and cultural areas he navigates,” said TCC’s TACHE chapter public relations representative Nancy Segovia-Cabrera.
As a first-generation college student, Aranda became involved in a lot of college opportunities where he realized he was one of few Latinos involved. This realization helped push Aranda to focus his energy on aiding the Latino community.
“As I was progressing through school, I realized those degrees were no longer mine. Those degrees belong to the people, the community that I wanted to serve,” Aranda said.
With that in mind, he sought out an organization that empowered him to do so, TACHE. Aranda has been a part of TACHE since 2016 and has taken on various roles within the organization.
He encouraged other Latinos to seek out the benefits TACHE has to offer such as its mentorship program and leadership development opportunities. He also shared insight on how members can give back to the organization and the Latino community.
As TACHE’s current president-elect and conference chair, Aranda said he looked forward to creating further impact after he is sworn in as president at TACHE’s upcoming conference.
“Our conference is going to kick off on Feb. 27 and will go through March 2,” added TCC’s TACHE chapter president Robert Ortiz.
More events can be found on TCC’s website.
