SPS visitor and former NASA mission control director Ginger Kerrick shares the perspective behind her success.
October 24, 2024
The Hispanic Federation’s Diana Caba ’01 makes the most of every opportunity — and is dedicated to creating them for others.
BY KATE DUNLOP
On Oct. 15, SPS welcomed Diana Caba ’01, vice president for community and economic development at the New York City-based Hispanic Federation, a national organization dedicated to advancing Latino causes, back to Millville. Caba delivered a chapel talk, toured the grounds, had lunch with the Oliver Scholars following in her footsteps, and connected with members of the Latinx Society over dinner in Coit before taking part in a Q&A session led by Latinx Society members Gretta White ’25 and Allyson Duardo ’26.
In her chapel talk, Caba shared her journey, which started in the Bronx, where she grew up the youngest of eight children born to Dominican parents who immigrated to the United States in the 1960s after the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Supportive guidance counselors connected her with the Oliver Scholars Program, which prepares high-achieving Black and Latinx students from underserved New York City Communities for success at top independent high schools, which in turn put her in the orbit of St. Paul’s School.
Back then, success meant getting out, Caba says — out of the inner city, out of public housing, out of the inequity that immigrants, children of immigrants and historically marginalized communities face. At St. Paul’s, through the academic and social triumphs and trials of high school life, Caba found a different definition of success: instead of getting out, it meant lifting others up as she had been in service to the greater good.
You might think that certain opportunities are out of your reach, but you are closing that door before even trying. If I had assumed St. Paul’s would not accept me, I would’ve been left wondering what could have been, but they did accept me, as did Tufts, Columbia and the Hispanic Federation, because I refused to close that door myself. … Don’t be afraid to explore the world, to be uncomfortable.”
“I’m blessed to have had nonprofit organizations looking out for me that have changed my life from a young age,” says Caba. “I never could answer that question, what do you want to be when you grow up? But I knew what I wanted to do, which was to help people. I did not realize it at the time, but the experience of being helped by nonprofits exposed me to what would become my career as a nonprofit professional focused on creating long-term sustainable social change and helping others … I always knew I wanted to give back to my community.”
And give back she has, including as an arts administrator, as a Fulbright Scholar in international development with a focus in Latin America, and now in her current role at Hispanic Federation, where she oversees a portfolio that includes work and immigration, economic development, and workforce development; she has advocated for former worker rights in New York State and for consumer protection, digital equity, financial inclusion and access to good jobs, and she has helped to create cash assistance programs for Puerto Ricans who had to leave the island after Hurricane Maria, distribute millions of dollars nationally in small business relief grants at the height of the pandemic and provide millions of meals to fight hunger.
“The more we engage, the more we can make a difference,” she said, before encouraging every student to be bold. “If anyone needs to hear this: You might think that certain opportunities are out of your reach, but you are closing that door before even trying. If I had assumed St. Paul’s would not accept me, I would’ve been left wondering what could have been, but they did accept me, as did Tufts, Columbia and the Hispanic Federation, because I refused to close that door myself. You all have a gift before you, an opportunity to try interesting things. Don’t be afraid to explore the world, to be uncomfortable … At times, we wait for an invitation to participate and connect. There are times when that invitation will not come. There will be times when you feel like you do not belong, but you do, and you can invite others to join you on that journey.”
The point in the end, she says, is not to pay back kindness, but to pass it on, and she closed with a wish: “May you recognize the critical role you play in your community and create a space of care and belonging for all.”
The importance of belonging resonated with Ava Haynes ’28, an Oliver Scholar in her first term at SPS, who had lunch with Caba and found solace in both her experience and advice.
“I told her about my struggles with feeling connected with my culture because I am not fluent in Spanish, and she was able to give me comfort, saying that speaking the language is not what affirms your identity as a Latina,” says Haynes. “I enjoyed hearing stories about her time at Oliver Scholars and being able to relate.”
