Victor Rios, a former juvenile delinquent and high school dropout, will be giving a campus-wide talk Wednesday, March 12, at 4:15 p.m. in the Watson Forum of the Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media.
Rios, a professor at the University of California Santa-Barbara, now works with delinquent youths in urban areas. The main focus of discussion will center around Rios' past and the work that he does. He will also be speaking at the Anthropology/Sociology Club from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The Anthropology/Sociology Club is a new organization as of this academic year. Founders and co-presidents fifth-year senior Gwen Eberts and senior Kristin Otto approached their faculty adviser, Matthew Oware, to find out if he had any suggestions for a speaker they could bring to campus.
"Gwen and I talked about it, and we really wanted to bring someone from outside DePauw to come and talk to us," Otto said. "[We wanted] someone from outside the liberal arts, small, Greencastle area."
During its meetings last semester, the club would bring in DePauw faculty members to talk about the research that they have worked on.
According to Eberts, bringing in these faculty members served two primary purposes. First, it provided the opportunity to see what jobs and research opportunities students can have in the sociology and anthropology departments once their DePauw experience is over. Second, its purpose was to meet and talk with multiple professors without actually having to take their classes.
"We love learning about the topics [of anthropology and sociology]," Eberts said, "but it doesn't directly translate into a lot of careers, so it's good for people to see what their options are post-DePauw."
Rios will be the first outside speaker that the club has hosted.
When Rios was a child, he was involved in a gang. He believes that there were two points in his life that made him decide to turn his life around and become the person he is today. One of these instances occurred when someone he was close with was shot and killed due to gang violence, explained Oware. One of Rios' teachers reached out to him about his loss.
"The teacher said, 'I know you're not okay, and I'm here whenever you need me,'" Oware said. "Someone had empathy for him and that sort of began a process of him wanting to make a change."
The other moment occurred when a police officer decided not to arrest Rios. Instead, the officer told him that if he stopped the gang violence he was so accustomed to, he would let Rios go.
"It was the one time a police officer or someone at that status had given him another chance," Eberts said.
While not every DePauw student can relate to Rios' background, Oware said the general theme of the talk will be about overcoming adversity, which many students can find some relation to.
"Issues of social injustice seem to be at the forefront of some students' minds," Oware said. "I think these are things that DePauw students, in general, they have their own forms of adversity."