St. John's News

“Felicidades!...you have been nominated for the Mujeres Destacadas 2006,”  the letter began. And, for the second time since the award’s inception 10 years ago, St. John’s Professor Alina Camacho-Gingerich learned that she has been named one of “40 Outstanding Women 2006” by El Diario La Prensa, which cited her involvement in the community and her “exemplary work and dedication” in her field.

One of 40 women selected for recognition this year, she and her co-honorees were feted by the New York publisher at a brunch on March 26 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Manhattan.

A Latin American and Caribbean Studies scholar, Professor Camacho-Gingerich was selected for a combination of her scholarship and community work. “While I hold an academic position, I’m serving the community which can benefit directly from the expertise we provide in the tradition of St. Vincent de Paul, “she explains. “It is always our hope that the research we do has benefits for our students and the community at large,”

As Chair of the Committee on Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at St. John’s since its founding in 1994, Professor Camacho-Gingerich has chaired interdisciplinary, international symposia, lectures, and workshops on Latino issues in which CLACS faculty experts and students were involved. Her approach, she says, is always, “What are the needs and what are the solutions?” Most recently, she reports, CLACS finished a project directed to the immigrant community of Queens entitled, “Helping our Communities Help Themselves,” which will offer classes in English as a Second Language (ESL), workshops on legal needs, rights and responsibilities, and information on where to go for help.

Sought after by local, national and international groups who look to her expertise in Latin American literature and culture, as wells as on issues affecting Latinos in the US. Professor Camacho-Gingerich was awarded the Simon Bolivar Medal, one the highest honors a Latin American nation bestows, in 1993 in La Paz, Bolivia, for her academic contribution to the Latino community. She received the Faculty Outstanding Achievement Award at St. John’s Annual Convocation in 2000 to acknowledge her dedicated service to the University and has twice been recognized as a “role model for women” by Women’s History Month committees at St. John’s. She is listed in Who’s Who Among Hispanics in the United States.

A professor in the Languages and Literatures program in St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since 1985, Professor Camacho-Gingerich teaches on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Remembering how stimulated she was by her professors when she was a student, she wants to do the same with her students. “A professor is a role model,” she reflects. “I love to teach, she says, “I love to spend time with students. Teaching is very closely linked to your research and to mentoring students. A good professor brings research into the classroom and for me, teaching continues outside the classroom.”

Her latest project is a proposal, recently submitted, for an interdisciplinary minor in Latin American and Latino Studies.