Wallace State graduate Javier Morales to speak twice this week on campus in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month
HANCEVILLE – Wallace State’s Diversity Committee is hosting alumnus Javier Morales on campus this week for multiple presentations.
In recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, Morales will speak to Wallace State Learning Communities students on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at the Burrow Center Recital Hall. Morales is also scheduled to conduct a professional development for Wallace State faculty and staff on Friday at 10 a.m. at the Burrow Center. The community is also invited to Friday’s presentation.
Morales, a graduate of Wallace State’s Human Services program, currently serves as an outreach coordinator and grant writer at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, Texas. He has worked for more than 20 years to enhance the lives of migrant farm workers and their children in various capacities including grant writer, program director, parent educator, farm worker advocate and as the first Hispanic radio DJ for education development in Alabama.
Morales was born in San Antonio, Texas, and lived in both Texas and Mexico during his childhood. He later moved to Oneonta, where he lived in Alabama for 15 years. While living in Oneonta, Morales established Project Aprende, which provides learning services for at-risk Hispanic students to better prepare them for the transition from high school to college. Morales has been awarded grants from both the United Way of Central Alabama and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to assist in those efforts.
Through WCRL 1570 AM in Oneonta, Morales also established the first educational Spanish radio program in Alabama.
“Javier Morales has worked diligently throughout his life to help the Hispanic community, especially in Blount County. He is now doing the same in Texas. Javier is highly accomplished in receiving funding for migrant workers and trying to assist in the educational development of their children,” said Stacey Brunner, a Wallace State psychology instructor and member of the WSCC Diversity Committee. “In honor of Hispanic Heritage month, we are thrilled to have Javier on campus. He has such a great message about Hispanic cultural awareness. He really knows the needs of students in the Hispanic community.”
After graduating from Wallace State, Morales earned a bachelor’s degree from Athens State in behavioral science and a master’s from Texas A&M in bilingual education.
Morales was recently named one of Wallace State’s Most Outstanding Allied Health Alumni.
For more information about Wallace State, visit wallacestate.edu.
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PHOTO: Javier Morales
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Russell Moore
Staff Writer
E-mail: russell.moore@wallacestate.edu
Office: 256-352-8443
Kristen Holmes
Communications & Marketing Director
E-mail: kristen.holmes@wallacestate.edu
Office: 256.352.8118 Cell: 256.339.2519
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