Story by Dwain Hebda
Like many people passionate about public service, Ruby De Santiago (’15) knows the need is great wherever one goes in the country or across the globe. Unlike many people, however, the California-born, Northwest Arkansas-raised De Santiago has shown a willingness to get her hands dirty where she’s needed.
So when she landed in Little Rock, it was with no small amount of expectation that the Clinton School curriculum would deliver the kinds of practical tools she could put into play immediately in service to others.
“I think what was so appealing for this program was the real-world impact, and being directly engaged in these programs,” she said. “When I was considering the Clinton School, I really wanted to expand my growth in the nonprofit sector.”
De Santiago has always been action oriented when it comes to helping others. She came to the program after already having contributed years of community service, both as a volunteer and in her first job after graduating from Brigham Young University’s Idaho campus.
“I got a full ride to Brigham Young University in Idaho, got my bachelor’s in political science with a minor in international relations, and that’s where I started looking at social programs,” she said. “A lot of my focus during that time was as a Hebrew J. Grant scholar, which meant we were first-generation students and as we got the scholarship we also helped other students coming into the program. A lot of them were inner city kids, so we kind of worked as mentors during that time as well. It was a really neat experience.
“I came home to Arkansas and became the associate director for a program under the umbrella of AmeriCorps called the AmeriCorps Family Outreach Program. We hired and trained bilingual folks to assist in our schools because during this time, the Rogers Public School system was about 25 percent Latino in the student population and we needed more translators. AmeriCorps teamed up through the public schools and we really structured a fantastic program.”
One of the motivations for entering the Clinton School was to get a better handle on effective evaluation techniques, to better see the effectiveness of programs and to identify needed changes.
“The curriculum introduced me to program evaluation and that was one of the big ones that drew me in,” she said. “Before coming to the Clinton School, I would just write grants and while grant writing is important, it’s not just that, right? The idea of nonprofits is the public service arm and how we can expand that and how we can grow. I needed that background to effectively expand my program and to grow in my role.”
Attending the Clinton School came with its share of sacrifices. De Santiago turned down a promotion at her job, relocated from Northwest Arkansas to Little Rock but traveled back regularly to help run a restaurant she’d opened with her family. She said managing all of this while also fulfilling her responsibilities as a single mother helped bring her coursework to life.
“I would sometimes challenge some of the ideas of how women were perceived,” she said. “I’ll give you an example: I’m of Mexican background and I remember once we were having a discussion and someone brought up machismo in Mexican culture and how hard it is for women to get ahead. I had to raise my hand and say, ‘Wait, wait, wait. Let’s let’s back up a little bit. Mexico’s at the leading forefront of women-owned businesses.’
“I come from a family of very strong women. My grandmother was one of the first professors in her area and she left all of that behind to move to a new country and start over. So yes, there is a culture of machismo but there’s also this very vibrant community of women who are the matriarchs at the forefront of their families. It led to some very interesting discussions.”
De Santiago’s Clinton School experience also included two international assignments, one in Paraguay with Habitat for Humanity International and another in Mexico for her Capstone project, gathering data in underprivileged communities to determine how public money could be best spent to deliver the most positive impact. Both experiences left a lasting imprint.
“They definitely taught me that the opportunity to go work abroad doesn’t mean that we take this American ideal of how other countries should work,” she said. “I leaned into their culture and I learned so much from the folks I worked with and who were actively putting in the time to help out their communities. For me, it was a really rich cultural experience. Latinos are not a monolith, you know, and going and experiencing new cultures showed me there are so many different opportunities out there.”
Today, De Santiago channels her passion for public service and global engagement through two dynamic professional roles. She serves as a senior product manager in Walmart Global Tech, where she supports 10 international markets in a fast-paced and impactful segment of the business. Additionally, she co-founded Colegio Yari, an international K-8 private school in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and currently serves as an advisor to the school.
The school empowers students with a focus on championing a sustainable future, a vision deeply inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit De Santiago cultivated as a student. “The Clinton School helped to sow my entrepreneurial spirit, and I hope to keep it alive both personally and professionally,” she said.
Ruby De Santiago, a 2015 graduate of the Clinton School of Public Service, is a senior product manager in Walmart Global Tech, and is the founder of Colegio Yari, an international K-8 private school in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
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