Mauricio Carrillo is a junior in business administration concentrating in supply chain management from Smithfield, NC. He serves in many roles at NC State, including peer mentor through the Poole College of Management, Juntos mentor, president of the Photography Club, member of the Supply Chain Club, resident in the Global Village and intern in the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity.
What are you looking forward to accomplishing most in your upcoming semesters?
I’m studying abroad next fall in Quito, Ecuador. I hope to find a deeper sense of myself from this experience. I also want to be able to communicate with strangers more effectively and improve my Spanish skills. As for my last semester at NC State in the spring, I definitely want to thank everyone that has helped me along the way. I also want to end the semester with a strong GPA and find the right career path after graduation.
What have been some of your most impactful experiences here at NC State?
Some of my most impactful experiences include volunteering with Read to L.E.A.D. through the Women’s Center. Through this program, I mentor two 4-6-year-old students and I learned that we definitely have a part in helping youth become the best that they want to be and that they can be.
Another impactful experience I’ve had is being a part of the Global Village. I’ve gotten the chance to meet people from all around the world and it has helped shape me into the person I am today. Through meeting people from different backgrounds, I’ve learned about different upbringings and states of mind.
Would you like to name specific individuals who have mentored you, and describe how they have helped you?
Jordan McMican was my advisor in what is now exploratory studies. She helped me figure out why I wanted to do my major and helped shape my four years of undergrad.
Dr. Lori Ghosal helped me figure out why I’m pursuing the goals that I am. She introduced me to new opportunities and showed me what was available with TRiO.
My academic advisor, Megan Van Hook, helped me throughout my undergrad career in the Poole College of Management. She also helped me realize my potential and always answers my questions.
How do you define diversity?
I define diversity as a group of individuals from different backgrounds, emotional levels, ways of thinking, ethnicities, sexual orientations, genders, etc. Basically anything that is different is diverse.
Why is diversity important to you and why do you think it is important at NC State?
Diversity is important to me because it has shaped me into who I am. This ties into why diversity is important on NC State’s campus. An individual doesn’t grow until they are exposed to people who come from different backgrounds. It’s easy to stay in the mindset of who you are and where you’re from, but it’s not until you meet other people when you start to understand that the world isn’t just about your one ethnicity or your one categorization.
We heard you attended the Equity in Action conference at Appalachian State earlier this month. What was your biggest takeaway?
My biggest takeaway was a workshop where a post-doctorate individual helped us analyze an image in a way that helped us gain a better understanding of ourselves. We started by depicting what we saw, then we analyzed the image, then we added implications from our lives and real-world solutions. That workshop and the conference in general helped me realize more areas of potential growth.
Austin Butler is a communications intern in the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity.