In 2022, University of Toledo junior Erica Sacoto won the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Diversity Advocacy for her work for the Latino community.
This past week, Miss Sacoto received a 2023 Diamante Award in the Latino youth leadership category.
“It’s really important to have a role model, especially in higher education, and you don’t really see that many professors that look like you,” Miss Sacoto, a karate black belt majoring in criminal justice, said.
“My goal is to become a [university] professor of criminal justice or sociology, because I want to be in a higher position so I can show that other Latino students can make it and that they can have a high placement in society, like a high paying job.”
Miss Sacoto, UT’s Global Latinx Student Union president who also mentors in the university’s Black and Latino Excellence program, spoke Tuesday on the sidelines of the 34th annual Diamante Awards ceremony at Owens Community College Health and Activities Center in Perrysburg Township.
“It really means a lot to me, ” Miss Sacoto, 20, said about winning the award. “I really try to help a lot of students, especially the freshmen. I really want them to feel welcomed on campus.”
Miss Sacoto was one of three honorees Tuesday. Jose Rosales, a Toledo Public Schools administrator, was honored in the Latino Adult Leadership category while Jesus Salas, senior attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, won the award in the Latino Adult Professional division.
The Latino Alliance of Northwest Ohio held the awards ceremony. Along with the community awards, 32 scholarships were awarded. About 120 people attended.
“We’re really here just to make sure that folks know that Latinos are a part of this country. We are part of what makes this country great and we are here to make positive change,” Aleiah Jones, president of the Latino Alliance of Northwest Ohio, said, noting that “The Latino population is the fastest growing ethnic group in the country.”
The ceremony was a highlight of Hispanic Heritage Month, which continues through Oct. 15.
Hispanic Heritage Month started with a week-long celebration in 1968, timed to coincide with the independence day celebrations of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
The Diamante Awards followed locally in 1989, celebrating community “diamonds” for their outstanding service to Latinos.
Created by Margarita De Leon, founder of the IMAGE of Northwest Ohio, a local chapter of a national Latino advocacy organization, the Diamante Latino Scholars Campaign launched in 2003, in partnership with Owens Community College, Bowling Green State University, Lourdes University, and University of Toledo.
Since the inception of the Diamante Awards, organizers have given out 175 community service awards and more than $1 million in scholarships to needy Latino students in the region.
First Published October 8, 2023, 2:42 p.m.
