Immigrant justice advocate Rosie Arroyo represents L.A. Latinos in groundbreaking Fellowship

Rosie Arroyo, an immigrant justice advocate, is representing the city of Los Angeles at the 2023 Eisenhower USA Fellowship, a distinguished fellowship that identifies, empowers, and connects innovative leaders committing to tackling entrenched racism and institutional inequities in the United States.

The world-class fellowship program connects the fellows in a global network of approximately 2,400 men and women dedicated to creating local and civic change. The Eisenhower Fellowship (EF) sends 10–12 outstanding mid-career American leaders abroad each year to network and connect with leaders and experts in their respective fields in relevant regions of the world. 

As a first-generation college graduate and the daughter of immigrants, Arroyo wanted to focus her fellowship on immigration and immigration rights. Other fellows are focusing on topics such as artificial intelligence, international relations, poverty reduction, and other things. Arroyo is the only one of the 11 fellows to focus on immigration.  

“I feel like immigration has been a core part of my life, helping to develop a civic mindset and passion and commitment to giving back to my community," Arroyo told CALÒ NEWS. “Growing up in a two-bedroom apartment, despite the limited space, I always remember it was always a very welcoming and warm home where we hosted family members that were migrating to the U.S.”

Arroyo visited Germany and Spain to explore the role that immigrants have played in their societies, the public’s perceptions of the newcomers and the way that policymakers have responded in these countries. When she returned home, Arroyo was committed to applying the knowledge she gathered to her professions and communities.

"From an early age, I learned my organizing skills at home; I learned how to advocate for my parents to have to translate for them, obtain services for them, and just seeing the directly lived experiences that we went through as a family, all that has allowed me to connect that to my work,” Arroyo said.

In the end, “fellows will develop a project, foster professional relationships and launch dynamic, concrete collaborations with their international counterparts, their cohort, and the prestigious EF network of more than 1,600 active fellows on six continents,” as stated on the fellowship website. 

The fellows from the EF were announced on October 1, 2023. Soon after that, the fellows had to travel to Philadelphia to meet their colleagues and visit the EF headquarters. “Your travels to Philadelphia mark your initiation into a fellowship of men and women, diverse leaders of influence from across the U.S., who are working to make this world a better place for generations to come,” stated the press release.  

Arroyo is the 9th of 10 siblings and was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, where 39% of the population is immigrant and the majority (47%) are Latinos, according to the U.S. Census. 

Today, Arroyo is the Senior Program Officer on Immigration at the(CCF), an organization that, since 2000, has given out almost $2 billion in grants, making CCF the fourth-largest community foundation and one of the nation’s top 50 foundations in terms of assets, grantmaking, and contributions. 

Arroyo has led several multisector civic engagement initiatives to advance systems change policies centered on racial justice and equity. As the senior program officer on immigration at CCF, Arroyo’s goal is to empower immigrants to thrive civically, economically and socially.

But Arroyo's career began 20 years ago when she followed her older sister's footsteps at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) as a teacher's assistant under the School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP). At LAUSD, she worked very closely with parents and families as a translator and helper. "I quickly saw the systemic inequities in our system and the lack of resources that were reaching our students. To address some of those challenges, I started getting more involved in the community and reaching out to people in civil rights spaces,” Arroyo said.

She then went on to work for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund, where she helped lead a national citizenship campaign titled “Ya es hora, ¡Ciudadanía!” The campaign's mission was to ensure that Latinos have access to the information and resources they need to become citizens. Arroyo played a key role in Latinos gaining a network of more than 400 organizations, including national partners, community organizations, local unions, and service centers providing access to information and resources about the naturalization process. 

With her work at CCF,  she has managed, led, and collaborated on numerous multi-million dollar, high-impact, multi-sector initiatives, including the first comprehensive examination of the immigrant rights sector (From Burnout to Wellbeing: Building a Sustainable Immigration Movement) in the L.A. area and Southern California. The research explored issues of staff well-being, burnout, economic security, and sustainability, which led to the establishment of the Immigrants Are Essential Fund, which helped to allocate resources to support wellness programs and activities such as self-care, therapy, workshops, and coaching. 

Arroyo is also part of “Immigrants are L.A.,” a coalition that this year focused on working alongside the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on the county’s $46.7 billion general budget to ensure that the billion-dollar budget rightfully allocates expenditures that reflect the county’s immigrant population. 

“In 2020, I provided catalytic funding that supported investments in the strategic development of the ‘Immigrants Are L.A.’ initiative, a diverse coalition comprised of 100+ organizations that seek to strengthen the organizing infrastructure of the immigrant rights nonprofit sector," Arroyo said.

Arroyo applied to the EF in December 2022. She learned about the EF from a Latino professor at USC, where she had partnered with the USC Equity Research Institute for the launch of the annual Immigration Summit in 2021. “I was approached by a professor at USC, Roberto Suro, who said, ‘Hey, you're doing great work in the community. You need to be in these spaces and learn about these programs where we can have a greater impact,’” Arroyo told CALO NEWS. “I feel that this opportunity came to me as a result of the work that I've been doing in the immigration portfolio and my involvement with community-based organizations.” 

“At the heart of Eisenhower Fellowships is our mission to help each and every one of you leave behind a legacy of positive impact and measurable, sustainable change. That journey may have begun many years ago, but we hope that your admission into the Eisenhower Fellowships network of more than 1,600 active Fellows helps you take your efforts to the next level,” said Erin Hillman, Vice President of Programs and Operations of the Eisenhower Fellowship. 

Throughout her time abroad, an important step of the fellowship, Arroyo was in Germany in September (for two weeks) and in Spain for an additional two weeks in November. “Throughout  my visit to both countries, I met with various leaders and sectors, focusing and looking at how their countries were and learning about their immigration infrastructure, the challenges they face and their responses,’ “Migration is a global issue; part of the work that I do is really driven and focused on advancing systemic change,” Arroyo said. “And now, as a result of this fellowship, I'm able to incorporate a global dialogue and perspective on immigration. As part of the fellowship, it is about providing us the opportunity to go learn and do something without learning.”

Arroyo is one of only  two fellows who are Latinos in her cohort. She is proud to represent the L.A. immigrant community when visiting countries and making a space on the table for issues that disproportionately impact this sector. “It has been a great honor and privilege to have this opportunity and be part of a prestigious global fellowship program. Growing up, I never knew about these possibilities,” Arroyo said. "I feel like it was my responsibility to pick up where my parents left off and take it to the next level, for future generations in our family and in our communities.”

Arroyo will be presenting her research and findings on global immigration in 2024. Community members, policymakers, and other activists will be able to view and learn more about her time in the EF at an immigration summit that CCF organizes every year.

“Who I am as an individual and how I show up to the table, I do feel and believe when I say I learned my organizing skills at home; I learned how to advocate for my parents to have to translate for them, obtain services for them, and just seeing the directly lived experiences that we went through as a family, all that has allowed me to connect that to my work,” Arroyo said.