Eliel Acosta-Solalinde is the new assistant director of student equity and inclusion programming at Penn State Brandywine.
New Staff Spotlight
Name: Eliel Acosta-Solalinde
Title: Assistant Director of Student Equity and Inclusion Programming
Department: Student Affairs
Eliel Acosta-Solalinde joined Penn State Brandywine as the new assistant director of student equity and inclusion programming in September 2022. Acosta-Solalinde received his bachelor of science in psychology in 2014 from Mount Saint Mary’s University and expects to complete his master of professional studies in community and economic development from Penn State World Campus in May 2023. With previous experience at Penn State Mont Alto as an undergraduate bilingual/bicultural admissions counselor, Acosta-Solalinde comes to Brandywine with a goal of getting to connect with students in a more personable way.
Brandywine: What is your background and previous experience?
Acosta-Solalinde: I'm coming from the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, area. I was an admissions counselor at Penn State Mont Alto for about seven and a half years. That’s where I started my entry into higher education. I’ve always enjoyed recruiting students, but I wanted to get more involved with students rather than just meeting them at the high schools, college fairs and open houses.
Apart from my professional life, my family is from Mexico, and I was born in Mexico City. We migrated in the early '90s. My grandfather used to be part of what they called the Bracero Program, which was a program created to bring agricultural workers from Mexico into the U.S. to help with the need of workers in World War II. He came in through that program and then brought in all his children as they became of working age. At some point, my parents decided to migrate as well.
Brandywine: What was your deciding factor in coming to work at Penn State Brandywine?
Acosta-Solalinde: When I started at Mont Alto, one of the goals when I was hired was to increase Latinx recruitment in the area since there was an increase in Latinx student enrollment across the country as a whole. At some point, I just wanted to work with students more on a one-on-one level, and there were always avenues in admissions to do so, but I was also kind of what they would call the road warrior (the counselor that was always on the road), which always made it difficult to be part of student organizations, clubs, committees or just being more involved on campus with also balancing my personal life. When I saw the opportunity here at Brandywine, I saw that bridge to work in a different space in higher education.
Brandywine: What are you looking forward to most during your time at Penn State Brandywine?
Acosta-Solalinde: I’m looking forward to working with students, collaborating with different offices, and figuring out programs that enrich the learning for students. During my first few weeks, I toured Brandywine and talked to different offices to figure out what was done in the past, what are some challenges, and what they want to see moving forward. I’m very excited about that.
Brandywine: What is your vision for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming at Brandywine?
Acosta-Solalinde: My vision is not just to have enriching programs, but also to have students coming out and engaged in those spaces, and that can look many different ways. A lot of times, it's really figuring out what do students care about. If you're putting out programming that doesn't really connect with them, there's not really going to be a need for them to turn out.
"My vision is not just to have enriching programs, but also to have students coming out and engaged in those spaces."—Eliel Acosta-Solalinde , assistant director of student equity and inclusion programming
Brandywine: Why do you feel that DEI programs are important?
Acosta-Solalinde: In college spaces, they're important because we're essentially getting students to enter a world after college. I'm very intentional about not just saying the professional world, where I think DEI is becoming kind of a hot topic, but in a lot of industries, companies are kind of putting that in the forefront. The importance of DEI work in college is to help students connect with other students, peers and faculty members who might have different lived experiences, and helping them kind of grow as individuals to become better global citizens once they leave Penn State Brandywine. It’s important to create spaces for students who historically didn’t have a space in colleges.
Having a space for underrepresented or minoritized students to create that sense of belonging on the college campus is important — not just from the perspective of the college and university of retaining them and seeing them through, but also just on their level of wanting to see them get their college degree and being successful in going forward after they leave Brandywine.
"Having a space for underrepresented or minoritized students to create that sense of belonging on the college campus is important."—Eliel Acosta-Solalinde , assistant director of student equity and inclusion programming
Brandywine: What can Brandywine do to improve its DEI efforts?
Acosta-Solalinde: When I was talking to folks on my tour, folks already have great ideas and the right vision. I think what needs to happen, and it's already happening on some sort of level, is more collaboration between academics, student affairs and different offices, and making that work.
Brandywine: What are some of your interests?
Acosta-Solalinde: Family is a pretty big one. My family only lives about two and a half hours from here. I have three nephews and one niece, and I enjoy spending time with them, my sisters and my mom. I think that's become a really big part of what is my life I think the last few years. I also just enjoy hiking. I'm a big vinyl record collector — I’m running out of space on where to put those. I'm a homebody, not very outgoing in my personal life. I also enjoy following and watching soccer. I regularly follow the Philadelphia Union, Arsenal and Chivas soccer clubs.
Brandywine: Anything else to add? Anything you would like people to know about you?
Acosta-Solalinde: My office is always open and they can always come to Student Union 202, and especially for students. That's one of the things that I tell students as I meet them through different organizations — my office is always open, we're always there. They don’t have to talk exclusively about DEI, but it could be anything related to navigating the college realm. I'm always here to offer some advice since I did work in admissions for several years. I have an understanding outside of student affairs of how some academic majors work, or at least where to point them when it comes to even financial aid. I really hope that as time goes on I develop that relationship with students, where they feel comfortable enough to visit my office even if it's not about programming.
