Latino Leaders in Higher Ed
Chris Porras Finds Strength in Community as He Joins Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship
Rockwell Career Center Senior Career Development Specialist Chris Porras joins the 2025 – 2026 Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship Cohort to make an impact and grow as a leader in higher education.
Porras learned of the fellowship from his colleague Brian Moreno, Office of Undergraduate Business Programs Director of Recruitment, Admissions and Partner Relations, who was in a previous cohort. Porras said that talking with Moreno and hearing about how positive his experience gave him the confidence to apply.
“One thing I’ve done in my career is I’ve always looked for opportunities to develop and advance as a professional,” he said. “That’s one main pillar of mine that I really value.”
In a recent interview, he shared more on his experiences growing up as a first-generation student and the impact he hopes to make on students’ lives.
What is the Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship?
This fellowship is designed to help advance educational leaders who identify as Latino in their current space.
Whether you are working in primary education, higher education or non-profit, they want to help give you the tools, networking and mentorship you need to be ready to take on future leadership roles.
That's what this program is cultivated towards and that's what we're learning right now.
What’s something you hope to learn from the fellowship that you would want to bring back with you to Bauer?
One thing I'm learning and want to continue learning is more about K-12 education, because that pipeline goes directly to higher education.
I think for me, it’s all about learning what challenges students are facing. What’s going really well and how can I be better prepared as a professional when they do get to Bauer? How can I meet them where they're at?
My experience is very different than the current student's experience. How can I make sure I'm both up to date from a data standpoint, but also from a personal standpoint of understanding their experiences? That's what I'm learning a lot right now that I didn't expect, but I'm excited to continue learning.
What type of perspective or experience do you think you bring to your fellowship cohort?
We actually talked about this in our first session. I'm one of the few Fellows that is not from the Houston area. To be in the fellowship, you have to live in either San Francisco, Boston or Houston.
I'm from the Midwest, but there are a lot of things that I can relate to, like being first gen, working through school to pay tuition and just experiencing some of the hurdles of higher education as an undergrad.
There are a lot of similarities I share with students at Bauer and UH. I'm able to connect with them more directly because I've gone through those experiences, even though it was in a different place.
Houston is home to one of the largest Latino communities in the country. How do you seek to foster the growth of learning and career opportunities for Latino students at Bauer?
The main thing is just really communicating what opportunities are out there. I think one issue we constantly run into is that students don't know what they don't know — they don't know about certain internships, they don't know about full-time jobs, and sometimes when they do learn about it, it's too late to apply.
I try to make it a value of mine to share opportunities that are coming up or anything I think students should know about on my platform, either on LinkedIn or in class. Like, “hey, we have this event coming up. Maybe they don’t know the significance of what this could hold both for an internship or a full-time job offer.”
It’s important to overly communicating opportunities because I think once students hear it more than once, they think, “Okay, I should look into this.”
What does it mean to you to be a Latino Leader?
I think for me it’s about being authentic and sharing my experience.
I wasn't the best student. I’ve gone through family struggles that I know other students have as well. I didn't really want to go to college at all, but I somehow got to where I am now because of all the opportunities I opened myself up to.
Also just expressing to students that the payout for what you’re doing now, especially as someone who identifies as Latino, is an opportunity that not everyone has. So, you have to make the most out of that.
You don't have to be this ideal student to be successful. My GPA in undergrad was very different than my grad. I really want to be authentic about those failures, while also highlighting my accomplishments. These students are way smarter than I am, so if I can do it, you should be doing it better.
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