Bay Path Celebrates Its Ties to Springfield’s Puerto Rican Parade

Longmeadow, MA— ¡Estamos Unidos! This Sunday Bay Path students, faculty, and staff will join together to celebrate Springfield’s Puerto Rican Parade. The parade’s theme, ¡Estamos Unidos! (We Are United!), will be on full display as the Bay Path community forms their own marching contingency celebrating Latinx literature, their own Latinx campus community, and one very special guest, 2019’s Puerto Rican Parade Cultural Ambassador and Bay Path’s own assistant professor, Maria Luisa Arroyo.

“The parade is an opportunity to unite students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life to learn and engage in Latinx culture,” stated Elizabeth Cardona, Bay Path’s Executive Director of Multicultural Affairs and
International Student Life and Assistant to the Provost for Diversity and Inclusion. “The Puerto Rican community has played a significant role in the social, economic and political transformation of this region. I'm extremely proud and humbled to connect our campus network with such a rich and vibrant cultural experience.”

Also celebrating Bay Path’s participation in the parade is the Puerto Rican Parade’s chairwoman Victoria Ann Rodriguez, who completed both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Bay Path and is a member of Bay Path’s Alumni Council. “Having Bay Path participate in the parade both as a sponsor and a marching contingency brings me great joy,” Rodriguez shared. “With this being my first year as parade chairwoman I am overcome with emotion and very humbled that Bay Path President Dr. Carol A. Leary, my mentor for over 15 years, will be present.”

Rodriguez, who initially met Dr. Leary as a 10-year-old Girl Scout, first worked with her as an undergraduate student when she served as Dr. Leary’s first Presidential Student Ambassador. Dr. Leary, herself a first-generation college student who understood the barriers that often preclude women from obtaining an education, invited Rodriguez to work with her on a strategic plan to recruit and engage more Latinx students.

Arroyo, born in Manati, Puerto Rico, and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts is a first-year writing assistant professor, and also teaches in Bay Path’s signature Women as Empowered Leaders and Learners (WELL) program. Her own educational journey as a first-generation college student included studying German, her third language, at Colby, Tufts and Harvard, and traveling to 12 countries, including Iran for a summer where she activated her self-taught Farsi. A published author, Arroyo is a Massachusetts Cultural Council Poetry Fellow and a recipient of the New England Public Radio (NEPR) Arts & Humanities Award. The entire Bay Path community is proud to support her as the Cultural Ambassador at this year’s Puerto Rican parade.

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About Bay Path University

Bay Path University was founded in 1897. With locations in Longmeadow (main), East Longmeadow (Philip H. Ryan Health Science Center), Springfield (MA), Sturbridge (MA), and Concord (MA), Bay Path’s innovative program offerings include traditional undergraduate degrees for women, The American Women's College on-ground and online, the first all-women, all-online accredited bachelor’s degree programs in the country; over 30 graduate programs for women and men, including doctoral degrees; and Strategic Alliances, offering professional development courses for individuals and organizations. Bay Path’s goal is to give students confidence in the fundamentals of their chosen field, the curiosity to question the ordinary, the leadership to show initiative, and the desire to make a difference.