Marco Moreno
California State University, Fullerton
A proud immigrant and first-generation college student, Marco Moreno is a summer 2018 candidate for a master's degree in Cultural Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton. With passion and focus throughout his academic career, Moreno has devoted himself to sparking dialogue and extending educational opportunities to his peers and to the surrounding communities of Orange County, California.
While completing his graduate studies, Moreno has chosen to work in his college Student Success Center. Among many campus endeavors, he has developed a college-navigation guide, promoted study abroad opportunities, hosted a campus dialogue on racially-based inequities, contributed to a Latin American Studies student conference and co-produced a documentary film encouraging campus engagement. Off campus he has woven his interest in anthropology into innovative community art projects that have drawn new and underrepresented voices into discussions on community-based education, culture change, gentrification and artistic expression. A champion for civic engagement, Moreno brings supreme leadership skills, boundless energy and a unique voice to the Newman Civic Fellowship program.
Personal Statement
Being exposed to a variety of histories, cultures and literatures, both in my undergraduate and graduate disciplines, has provided me the opportunity to identify and understand what my role is in this world and how I can make the most effective contribution.
Over the years, I have gravitated toward interdisciplinary projects because I could creatively and strategically engage in my passion for understanding cultural issues at a systematic level. My interests deal primarily with an analysis of public institutions, culture and education. I have organized a public intervention addressing community concerns, served as a mentor in the Graduate School Mentorship Program A.L.A.S. (Advancing Latinxs Academic Success), and co-developed a lecture discussion around race with professors and graduate students. I have also utilized my research methods to interview students about their experience at the university and to communicate those findings, in English and Spanish, to first-generation students and their families. I am currently developing my master's thesis project, "If These Walls Could Talk: Murals and Graffiti in Orange County, California," which will examine murals and public art as a form of historical and community representation of communities that have either been marginalized or misrepresented in written histories.
