Six months ago, Professor Elsa-Sofia Morote, Ed.D., Ph.D. joined John Jay as our new Dean of Graduate Studies. She brought with her a passion for empowering and elevating underrepresented communities through equal access to higher education. “The thing that appealed to me the most about John Jay was the mission of social advancement for the students,” Morate said. “Social mobility is important to me. It is in John Jay’s mission and it is a part of my mission as well.” Morote’s persistent pursuit to promote inclusivity and accessibility was recently celebrated by the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Inc. at their 15th Annual Latina Hat Luncheon. Morote was honored with the Community Advocate of the Year Award for her extensive work within the community and, most notably, her trademarked series College, Yes You Can, Si Se Puede, a program she established in 2014 to motivate students in underserved communities to go to college. “When you help a person of color, you are uplifting a community. You are helping the future generations and the family. You are empowering them all,” Morote said. We sat down with her to learn about her work and what she is most excited about as a member of John Jay’s community.

Can you tell us about your work that led to this award?
The Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is a blend of American communities and Hispanic communities, along with other communities of color. They have existed for almost 40 years in Long Island, New York, and every year they honor one or two people they believe have positively impacted the community. I was working on various tasks last year with the community, and I believe this was why they chose me for the award.

I didn’t feel like I was a leader, but I slowly became a leader because people needed a leader. I still remember when I first threw the dissertations I was reading on the floor and I asked myself, What am I doing reading dissertations about discrimination against Black and Latino males, publishing articles, and not doing something about it? I went to the president of the college where I worked and I said I wanted to create an organization to bring in more students of color. There was pushback. I then offered to do it for free. After that, I started knocking on the doors of high schools. When I went to the high schools in Long Island they said that their Black and Hispanic students were there to go straight into the police academy or into the military. They were not preparing them for college. There was no choice. They told me, “We are not interested in your program.” Eventually, I found a person who advocated for student rights. They had thousands of Hispanic students arriving from different countries who did not speak English yet. They were smart and they wanted to find a way to go to college. I decided to host my program in Spanish and English. I invited high school counselors and students and prepared large events in colleges to teach underprivileged students that college is possible. We did our first session and brought in advocates to help raise money for tuition. The first time we held our program, there were only 100 people. They raised $500,000. I decided then that wherever I go, I am going to take College, Yes You Can, Si Se Puede, that was the name of the program, with me. Eventually, I developed the program into Incarcerated College, Yes You Can, which served as a college prep program for incarcerated students. This program was successful, and 80 percent of students stayed out of the system. I became a community organizer, a leader, and an advocate. Soon people started to recognize me as a person who could advocate for them.

We’ve heard that you made a special effort to support communities in need during the pandemic. Can you tell us what kind of work you did?
During the high pandemic peak, in April, May, and June of 2020, when people were losing their jobs, I contacted a food bank organization, Island Harvest, and created a team to deliver food in low-income areas. We focused on high-poverty areas because my students were in high levels of poverty. Island Harvest could provide the food, but they didn’t have a way to get the food out to people in the community because they no longer had volunteers. They agreed to provide the food if I found the volunteers and trucks to carry the food into the community. I didn’t have a truck or anything, but I agreed to find the resources. I had a meeting with my staff and began coordinating. In one week, we were online. I started calling school districts because they were already delivering food to the students. They had cars and buses dropping off food on specific corners. I asked about the logistics and whether or not they would be able to help me. They gave me two buses. We got a team of people together, and we got the food to those who needed it. The interesting thing is, if you create a community, people come out of the woodwork to help.

Why is this work so important to you?
Everything began because I care about students having equal access to higher education. It’s not fair that students are being told that college is not an option for them. It is important for me to stay connected to the community because support comes from the community. Everything can be found within the community. When I was volunteering, I would hear mothers say, “College is too expensive.” I told them to just let their children dream. The money will come. When I first did Incarcerated College, Yes You Can in a Brooklyn jail, I went in there and said, “This program will help you attend college.” Nobody in their lives had told them that they could go to college. At that moment, I was remembering those children in Long Island, whose counselors were telling them to go into the military because they didn’t have other options in life. If students want to go to the military or the police academy, that is okay, but students should have the option to choose for themselves.

What did it mean to you to receive this award?
I was utterly happy. Receiving the award motivates me to keep doing this kind of work. It was amazing that the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce chose me because that means they actually saw how the community was being impacted by my work.

What are you currently working on at John Jay?
The Graduate Studies department is working to increase student engagement and support retention. I believe in having signature programs because those programs are unique and create a legacy. I plan to host them monthly and yearly. We have also opened social media accounts and are posting every day on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. We post inspirational messages and useful information to help attract prospective students and engage with our current students. We have programs like Intercultural Thanksgiving, which we began this past November, and it was a success. The goal was to welcome newcomers and discuss how different cultures celebrate Thanksgiving. In May, we will be hosting our first Graduate Research Symposium and our first Graduate Job Fair. Running monthly, we have Virtual Social Hours with specific themes. Last month, it was “How you introduce yourself” and then networking skills. This month, we will host a trivia event and game of Jeopardy about women in history.. We live stream Graduate Power interviews with alumni every Monday at 6:00 p.m. The videos are accessible on our YouTube channel.