Leo Quintero will be honored by Grand Canyon University this week, but nine years ago he was a struggling freshman from San Diego. The U.S.-born child of immigrants from Acapulco, Mexico, he had moved numerous times as a child and attended a high school in San Diego that was predominantly Hispanic.
When he came to GCU in 2015, he didn’t feel like he belonged in a unfamiliar environment. Then he found a student club, the Latino Student Union, becoming one of seven members (four were club officers). They went together to cheer at basketball games, to worship, to share cultural foods and customs.
GCU soon became “a home away from home,” he said. By the following year, he was the club’s president, vice president and treasurer before talking more friends into filling leadership spots, and the club grew to 80 students as he became a voice of diversity on campus, meeting with university leadership.
After his 2019 graduation with a degree in information technology/cybersecurity, Quintero took a job at GCU but never forgot what the club did for him. He became a volunteer club advisor.
On Thursday, he will be given the GCU Clubs award as Advisor of the Year for his tireless work with the Latino Student Union, which transformed him from struggling freshman to a familiar face on campus.
“I met people who were important to me. We formed family bonds,” said Quintero, who today is GCU’s change technology program manager. “I understand the true value it brings. It did for me.
“I met my wife in the club.”
Even as he does today, Quintero then served as the club’s DJ for dances, and he asked a young woman one day what she’d like to listen to. “She was shy; she didn’t respond. But the next meeting she said, ‘hi.’”
In 2021, he married Reyba Calno Quevedo, a GCU graduate who today works in a neighborhood school.
Quintero wanted to be of service, to continue to bring that home away from home to Latino students in the club, this year approaching 200, nearly three-fourths of Mexican heritage, but welcoming to people of all countries and ethnicities.
“He cares for his students’ development deeply,” said Clubs and Organizations Manager Abigail Castillo. “You can see his impact as an advisor based on the ways his club members speak so highly of him. You can tell he shows up for them in all ways.”
Each of 129 student clubs have an advisor, sometimes more, from full-time GCU faculty or staff. An annual winner of advisor of the year is chosen among nominations.
“People see him, love him, ask about him when he’s not there. He may be our advisor, but he’s gone beyond that. He’s part of our community,” said junior Latino Student Union President Izaak Camarillo.
He said people remember Quintero because of his confidence and the way he lights up a room. “He’s not afraid to be himself.”
Camarillo said that Quintero also ensures the values and purpose of the club continue. At a recent final meeting of the club, which had grown to so many attendees that they had to move it to a bigger area in the Technology Building, a young woman came up to him in tears. She told him she was ready to go back home before “the club gave me a sense of home, a reason to stay.”
Quintero has brought his organizational skills, using technology to keep track of club business, and his wicked DJ skills to give students a space to both dance to everything from northern Mexico folk music to the Latin pop others love.
“You really don’t have to tell Latinos to have a good time,” he said.
With co-advisor Jacqueline Perez, he has also encouraged students to share their culture. During the holidays, for example, the club holds a posada, celebrating the story of Mary and Joseph looking for a place at an inn, which culminates with a party.
He guides the club in discussions about their fears of political changes in the U.S. “Sometimes we have to ask, are we truly victims or is this something we can do something about? We try to be objective,” he said.
Often, after his own workday, his volunteer efforts with the club stretch toward midnight, as conversations between people from different Latin American countries become illuminating. One member told of how, in her country, a dark-skinned young daughter is destined to be a dutiful wife and submissive homemaker while a light-skinned sister is looked upon as a princess and encouraged to go out into the world and chase dreams.
“She was a dark-skinned princess,” Quintero said.
Many of the students face a lot of pressure from parents, who tell their children they have sacrificed everything for their education, so ‘you are going to college.”
The Latino Student Union gives them a space to talk about it, to work through anxiety.
Quintero often sits in the front of such conversations, urging on the sharing, but said humbly that the advisor honor is undeserved. All he does is listen and encourage.
“I can’t want it more than students. I want them to learn and grow,” he said. “It was because of them. Their belief is what drives it.”
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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Honorable mention club advisors: Tim Kelley, IDEA Club; Dr. Praveena Jayaraman, Trap, Neuter and Release Club; Evelyn Racette, International City Management Association Club; Dr. Luke Mayer, Engineers Gone Global Club
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