Montoya works to link the University of New Mexico law and medical schools to public schools through these programs so that middle and high school students can envision themselves in college and graduate and professional schools.
“In the past, law schools and medical schools were islands; they didn’t have much contact with the rest of the community,” she says. “We, lawyers and doctors, have so much clout that we should be the voice for educational reform.”
And although her Harvard experience was a challenging one, particularly socially and culturally, Montoya says both she and Harvard benefited from the experience.
“A Harvard education provides a credential that opens doors and facilitates the initial evaluations in getting jobs and being taken seriously. I benefited by being exposed to giants in the legal field, by learning about power and how to recognize and use it and by getting to know amazing students,” Montoya says.
But that experience was not a one-way street.
“Harvard also benefited from our presence. Students of color, and later faculty of color, changed the institution by making it more democratic and egalitarian,” Montoya says. “We changed it by making it more reflective of the nation’s history and expressive of its competing narratives; we changed it by making it truer to its own principles of meritocratic excellence.© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
