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Finding a Way
Carolina double alumna and staff member Maribel Carrion ’77, ’86 (MBA) established the first endowed fund at the Carolina Latinx Center. The gift endows a fund to provide students with opportunities to travel abroad and participate in global opportunities.
The Carolina Latinx Center provides students, faculty and staff the opportunity to explore Latinx cultures, histories and traditions and to use that understanding to work across racial and ethnic communities in North Carolina, the country and the world. The center supports UNC-Chapel Hill’s Latinx communities and allies and educates the campus and beyond through engagement, scholarship, cultural awareness and public service.
Carrion, an avid supporter of the Carolina Latinx Center, the Carolina Performing Arts Student Ticket Angel Fund, and Global Take Off: Puerto Rico, also gives back by volunteering in a number of areas on campus, including as a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Visitors, the CPA Advisory Board, the Chancellor’s Global Leadership Council, the Alumni Committee on Racial & Ethnic Diversity and the Carolina Latinx Center Board.
The impact that studying abroad had on Carrion’s sister inspired her to establish this endowment, which began as a collaboration among the former Center for Global Initiatives led by Niklaus Steiner, the Institute for the Study of the Americas led by Beatriz Muniz, and the Stone Center for Black Culture and History formerly led by Joseph Jordan. Carrion said the experience changed her sister’s world view in meaningful and powerful ways. “When you find something you really want to help with, you find a way to make it happen,” said Carrion. “Seeing the impact my gifts have had on students’ lives just makes me want to do more.”
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carrion grew up in a military family and lived in the United States, Germany and Panama before she came to UNC-Chapel Hill to study mathematics. She later obtained her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and went on to a multinational career in software development. Thirty years later, she returned to Chapel Hill, and she is now the executive director of student administration and enterprise reporting in UNC’s Information Technology Services department.
