After three years of practicing international law in his native Venezuela, David Albornoz accepted a graduate fellowship from Hamline University where he earned a Master of Arts in management. Albornoz was enjoying life as a teacher at La Escuelita, a Minneapolis nonprofit dedicated to educational equity for Latino youth in Minnesota, when he decided to apply for the vacant executive director position and was selected in September 2007.
Albornoz succeeded in resolving the agency’s serious financial issues and couldn’t be happier with his career. “I love the reality check that I get every day,” he says. “You find kids who are trying so hard to go to school and be successful in this country. It keeps me really well grounded.”
Albornoz, who lives in St. Paul with his wife Maria and three kids, also turned around his own life. “The year before I came here, I had a stroke and a heart attack,” he says. “I was only 30 years old and I was sick of being a lawyer. Now I am an educator for social change, a multicultural advocate for educational equity, and a community activist for civic engagement. I love what I’m doing.”
