Growing up in Puerto Rico surrounded by parents from two strong Latino cultures inspired Castillo to help others like her to build futures and community so they can create legacies of growth and success, she says, adding she has always known she wanted to be able to serve Latino students and create opportunities for them to thrive.
Log in to view the full article
Growing up in Puerto Rico surrounded by parents from two strong Latino cultures inspired Castillo to help others like her to build futures and community so they can create legacies of growth and success, she says, adding she has always known she wanted to be able to serve Latino students and create opportunities for them to thrive.
“My dissertation focused on academic persistence for Latino students using a psycho sociocultural framework,” says Castillo. “I was really thinking about how persistence is connected to self-concept, cultural identity, our ability to find mentors, our campus, our ability to find cultural spaces on campus.”
Still, when she joined the Salem State staff as a psychologist 21 years ago, she never imagined her role would evolve to not only a senior leadership role on her campus, but one that would see her leading a state-wide HSI-MSI Consortium. Now, Castillo spends her days working to create opportunities for students who are typically first-generation college students, and often first-generation Americans.
“I have a lot to be grateful for in my career,” she says. “I’ve been able to have one-on-one connections with students to really help them see their possibilities differently and help them really fulfill their potential and get through some challenging times and get to better times.”
The success of past and present students fuels her to keep working toward creating a campus experience that is supportive and gives students a feeling of belonging. “I get so proud when I see our alumni and what they're accomplishing. I'm just so proud of them,” Castillo says.
“I’ve really helped the whole university embrace our identity as an HSI-MSI with a lot of pride,” she states. “We've really developed a sense of organizational identity and pride because we are so committed to the civic engagement peace. But, also, just uplifting folks from a culturally affirming lens.”
Castillo is aware of the preconceived idea about a lack of diversity in the Boston population. But she shares how the growing Latino population – estimated in 2025 as 20% – is a result of families coming to the gateway city for workforce and business development trends. This contributes to the urgency she has when creating a welcoming campus culture.
“Thirty percent of our student population is Latino and about 40% of them are either Dominican or Puerto Rican but [there’s also] a large Afro-Latino population,” she says. Other Hispanic groups include Venezuela, El Salvador, Columbia, other Central American countries and the Caribbean.
Thirty-five percent of the current incoming class identifies as Hispanic, and Castillo says she has noticed two points of need from these students coming to campus and their families: financial assistance and language access.
“We’re building more intentionality into our curricular and co-curricular programs, [which] is something I'm very excited about, because we want all students to not feel like they're navigating [the college experience] alone,” she says.
“Just this year, we were able to get a $5 million gift to create an endowed multilingual welcome center at SSU,” Castillo continues. “Now we’re working on creating a space on campus so that family member from all over will know there’s a place they can go to access information in their language.”
The value of family and the practice of not leaving anyone behind are important across Hispanic cultures, and Castillo says she tries to incorporate both into her day-to-day duties. Some days, this looks like launching a campaign to re-engage students who stopped out for various reasons and encouraging them to return to school on a part-time or full-time basis.
“We’ve had the program in place now for a couple of years and it’s really yielding positive results,” she says. “In the Latino community in particular, they are really responding and coming back and able to make progress.”
Castillo says she also recognizes what her visibility on campus means for Hispanic students, noting that she wants students to see themselves in her so they will be encouraged to make a difference in their communities and within their families.
“It’s an honor to be an academic leader,” she says. “I’ve been able to create spaces for our students where they feel seen. We talk about community cultural wealth and liberatory spaces. We’re really leaning in with a full heart and from the president, through the students, and faculty are really on board because we adore our students and we want to see them thrive.”
This story originally ran in The EDU Ledger's October 1, 2026 edition. Subscribe here for full access.
