In a young person’s world where short term decisions can have long range implications, Pueblo college student Maria Meza Saldivar has so far made all the right moves. And they’re paying off in way that, not that long ago, may have seemed out of reach.
Meza Saldivar will represent CSU Pueblo at the upcoming Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities national leadership program held each year in the nation’s capital. Each year HACU selects 50 college students to take part in an eight-month program focusing on leadership, policy, public speaking and networking. The 19-year-old Meza Saldivar is Colorado’s only student selected for the program.
Meza Saldivar, closing in on her junior year at Colorado State University Pueblo, has charted a course that she hopes will one day land her in a courtroom arguing immigration law or in another arena where the rough and tumble world of politics plays out every day and where the lives of others are often determined.
She made her decision, she said, when she was in high school at the now shuttered Dolores Huerta Preparatory Academy. Politics, as long as she remembers, has always fascinated. Immigration, well, is a subject that hits very close to home. While she and her younger brother are American citizens, her parents are immigrants.
While Saldivar was born in Phoenix, she lived with her family in Chihuahua, Mexico, for much of her early life. But her family returned to the U.S. and Pueblo in 2019 as she was entering middle school. But even at that point, she knew college was the goal.
At Dolores Huerta, Meza Saldivar began taking college courses. So, when she landed on the CSU Pueblo campus, “I was not intimidated…I was used to college work and knew the campus,” she recalled. Now, only a handful of credits from her official college junior year, Saldivar carries a 4.0 GPA.
Her selection for the prestigious HACU program was more than she expected. “When you’re applying,” Saldivar said, “you’re just applying.” While she knew she had the right stuff for the program, she also knew the competition was stiff. Others, she said, “are putting in the same effort as you.” Still, she thought her essay accompanying her application was strong. “I trust myself,” she said in the phone interview. “I also knew my worth.”
Preparation for what awaits in the HACU program, which begins with an orientation program in San Diego and later the formal program in Washington, D.C., began months ago on the CSU Pueblo campus.
Meza Saldivar is part of the school’s SLICE program which focuses on student leadership, community involvement, career and engagement. She thinks being part of the program will provide the foundation necessary to do well once she joins student peers from both big and small schools across the country. And then, there’s the chance to travel to where she’s never been before.
“I’m going to California,” Meza Saldivar says, “a place I’ve never been (before).” “I’m also excited because I will be able to meet people just like me.” But more than anything, said the CSU Pueblo honor student, is just having the opportunity to hone her public speaking skills and network with professionals whose role is to fine tune and prepare young minds for their future world.
Meza Saldivar being chosen for the HACU program comes as no surprise to Dr. Victoria Obregon, director of intercultural initiatives at the Pueblo school. She first met her when Meza Saldivar was in high school. “Her love for family and community,” Obregon said in a CSU Pueblo news release, “is why scholarships and opportunities continue to pour into her cup.”
Meza Saldivar will travel to San Diego for HACU orientation later this month.
