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In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, GlobalMindED highlights Hispanic leaders, role models, and those who are committed to advancing Hispanic heritage, people, and culture.
Providing Resilience and Opportunity Equaling Impact for Justice System Impacted Youth: Meet Alexandra Vidal
Alexandra Vidal is a dedicated advocate for workforce and education equity and empowerment, specifically for young adults who have been impacted by the justice system. She is a proud Rutgers-Newark alum and holds a bachelor's degree in political science and history. Her current professional experiences are focused on program design and implementation, partnership building, and leading strategic initiatives for a national youth training program.
As a young adult working directly with youth who have been impacted by the justice system, she has had the privilege of amplifying the voices of her peers whom she serves, leading to the direct improvement of national services, processes, and support being provided in the programs she oversees. Alexandra looks forward to continuing to tear down barriers and build roads that ensure the upward socioeconomic advancement of youth impacted by the justice system.
What is your Personal Story?
My personal story begins with my family's migration to the United States. I moved here at the age of nine from the Dominican Republic with my mother and brother, with assistance from my aunt. Life as immigrants came with many challenges, from learning an entirely new language and assimilating into a new culture to having to redefine and rebuild our community and support structures. These challenges were compounded for my mother, who not only had to navigate these large-scale sociocultural issues but also had to concern herself daily with working multiple odd jobs while trying to raise two kids and make ends meet.
These circumstances are not unique to my family and me, but rather a common story shared by immigrants who come to this country for a better life. Growing up under these conditions and witnessing my aunt's and mother's resilience led me to dedicate my life to the service of others. I wanted to emulate the selflessness and dedication to ensuring the success of others embedded in my aunt's spirit—being a resource to others, a connection to the community, and a provider of the resources others may need. Similarly, I wanted to invoke the spirit of my mom's fierceness and bravery, ensuring that the voices of those disconnected from great equalizers like education and meaningful employment opportunities are heard and that their needs go beyond just basic necessities.
This foundation led me to focus my educational and professional experiences on workforce development and, on a larger scale, the development of tools and resources for communities most in need. I believe that this approach aligns best with the impact I want to make professionally because I know how beneficial a formal professional opportunity would have been for my mother, working 14-hour shifts at a local diner. I know how life-changing the chance to return to school and continue her formal education would have been for my aunt. I know this because they both received that opportunity from a person. A single person at different points in their lives saw their drive for a better life and decided to take a chance on them.
That one opportunity had a butterfly effect that completely changed the trajectory of my life, allowing me to be the first person in my family to graduate high school in America, the first to graduate college, and the first to have the freedom and privilege of choosing a career intentionally. I am the first person in my family who gets to wake up every day and do something I absolutely love as a means to support myself. I dedicate myself to workforce development because all it takes is one person, one opportunity, to change the trajectory of an entire family tree, and I want to ensure that somehow, someway, I can contribute to that.
My journey in workforce development began as an intern for the New Jersey Department of Labor, specifically in the Office of Apprenticeship and the NJ Builders Utilization Initiative for Labor Diversity. There, I learned what it means to create, develop, and oversee programs for youth disconnected from the traditional pathways that facilitate upward socioeconomic mobility in the United States (such as a college degree) by designing and piloting entirely new ways to provide this population with opportunities and measuring the impact of these changes. My experience at the NJ Department of Labor and witnessing the lasting positive impact that workforce development programs can have on underserved, underrepresented communities was the sign I needed to know that this is what I am dedicating my life's work to.
This pivotal experience ignited my passion for workforce development and social impact initiatives, setting me on a path of continuous learning and impact in the field. In my current role at STRIVE International, I've had the opportunity to further this mission by overseeing and providing technical assistance and training to workforce development organizations and practitioners across the country who are centering the empowerment and overall success of justice-involved youth in their communities by ensuring their access to employment and education.
My dedication to social justice and economic mobility continues to evolve as I seek out new opportunities to expand my impact and collaborate with others who share this vision. That is why I believe that partnering with GlobalMindED will allow me to connect with other like-minded individuals and organizations who are passionate about driving social impact through strategic program management and partnership development. One of my long-term goals is to bring the core principles of quality programmatic pillars and structures, socioeconomic equity, and the leveraging of community and partnerships to communities that need it the most. The goal of this endeavor is to provide grassroots organizers with the tools to develop, implement, and execute social service programs for their communities, by their communities. This partnership with GlobalMindED is one of the key steps in building a global network of change-makers dedicated to fostering inclusive, community-driven solutions that address systemic inequalities and empower underserved populations.
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