From despair, a stone of hope

When Ximena Silva-Aguirre discovered a burglar had broken into her student house and stolen the money she’d earned just that summer, she was mad enough to punch something.

So she did.

The chair she hit proved a formidable opponent and broke her hand in two places. She flew home to Chicago for immediate surgery and withdrew from UD while she recovered. She said she felt like everyone at home was giving her that look: We don’t believe you’ll go back to college.

“It was the scariest part of my life, and an embarrassing time of my life,” she said.

But looking back, she said it deepened her commitment to college and created an unexpected opportunity for her to extend her human rights education into a fifth year, which included her being on campus this past summer.

Silva-Aguirre is the first student to receive UD’s Stones of Hope Fellowship. The fund provides a stipend for a summer faculty-mentored position through the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Summer Fellowship Program.

“Educating myself helps me educate others,” said Silva-Aguirre, whose focus on human rights included researching organizations that can support Dayton-area immigrants with education, advocacy and more.

She also worked with immigrants at St. John’s United Church of Christ in downtown Dayton, which offers English language classes for adults. Silva-Aguirre, who is fluent in Spanish, assisted in translating and facilitated listening sessions.

“Being around people who have very difficult stories and situations has allowed me to be able to empathize with people who are not like myself,” she said. “I get to know people individually and get to hear their stories.”

And stories have power. Her own story includes being attending an all-Latino high school and being attracted to UD by the Flyer Promise Scholars program — but struggled initially to define her academic passion.

While home on medical leave, she interned at her former high school and helped motivate students to pursue a college degree; some of those students are now coming to Dayton. That experience, plus the guidance of her summer mentor, assistant professor of anthropology Miranda Hallett, is leading her toward graduate studies to help underrepresented students succeed in college.

The Stones of Hope Fellowship is named after a line in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech:

“With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

Clarence Alan Jackson, who earned a master’s in English from UD in 1990, committed $50,000 to UD to establish the fellowship, honoring King’s dream of people becoming a stone of hope to do good for others.

Jackson, who enjoyed a career as a college professor and administrator at institutions across the country, gives along with his siblings to various institutions. At UD, they established the Alan Jackson and Family Endowed Scholarship. He also supports the UD Fund and the departments of English and theater.

“While I don’t have millions of dollars to give, I’m doing this in hope of giving back to others, with the hope they can help even more people to do good,” Jackson said.

Hallett, director of the human rights studies program, is mentoring Silva-Aguirre in a technique called community-based participatory action research. It combines knowledge and action to assist immigrant communities in creating their own solutions while maximizing the importance of diverse contributions.

Hallett’s guidance and teaching has made all the difference, Silva-Aguirre said: “She listens to my dreams.”

And from adversity, another stone of hope is hewn.