Juan Maldonado joins the Holy Cross College community as the Student Success Coordinator. In his role, he will mentor students as part of the Cornerstone Mentoring Program within the Department of Student Success. He will also facilitate a section of IDST 105 Cornerstone for Success, a new course for first-semester first-year students.
He received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master of Theological Studies from the University of Notre Dame.
Career Path
“As a student at the University of Texas at Austin, I worked as an office assistant in the Equal Opportunity in Engineering Program office. Their purpose was to recruit, retain, and graduate underrepresented minorities within the Cockrell School of Engineering. I helped assist with a variety of events, data, and organizations within the office and interacted with a host of prospective and current students. At Notre Dame, in the course of two years, I served as a teaching assistant for six different courses allowing me to interact and get to know a variety of students within a more academic context. Since I’ve only been a student up to this point in time, I think these two experiences, in particular, have helped form me to be impactful in this position,” said Maldonado.
As he completed his time in Austin, Texas, he started growing in his faith and wanted to know more about the church, driving him to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame.
“While at Notre Dame, I loved working with students and getting to know them personally, rather than just being a grader. It was over the past two years or so that I realized I wanted to be able to journey with students in some capacity at the collegiate level. I knew working within a Catholic environment would be ideal to be able to continue discussing and being open to conversations about the faith.”
Why Holy Cross College
“One of the things that brought me to Holy Cross College was the students. When I visited the campus this past semester, they had a lot of ideas, vision, and heart for the campus that they were a part of. In addition to the students, the staff members were all eager and passionate in their positions and how they served the College, and I thoroughly enjoyed each interaction that I had with them,” noted Maldonado.
Plans on campus
“In my position, I hope that as students work towards the completion of their degree over the course of their time at Holy Cross College, they feel like they not only have they succeeded, but have also thrived here. In addition, as part of a brand-new department, I want to help shape the foundation of the Student Success Department in conjunction with the rest of the team to better serve our students and the College for many years to come,” said Maldonado.