Mrs. Karina Moreno-Corgan Delivers Inspiring Talk

On Monday, September 30, Gonzaga held a Hispanic Heritage Month Assembly featuring an inspiring keynote speech by Mrs. Karina Moreno-Corgan, the President of the Dolores Mission School in East Los Angeles. 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mrs. Moreno-Corgan is the eldest daughter of Mexican parents who immigrated to the U.S. to provide better opportunities for their family. She has gone on to earn two master’s degrees and is currently a candidate for a Doctorate of Education at UCLA. (She is also the daughter-in-law of longtime Gonzaga Religion teacher Mrs. Carol Corgan!)

Together with the church across the street, Dolores Mission School serves a community that is largely made up of first-generation and immigrant families; seventy five percent of Dolores Mission School’s families earn less than $24,000 per year. Mrs. Moreno-Corgan has been leading and championing the Jesuit school in the broader Los Angeles community for the past 17 years. During the assembly, she showed a video highlighting the school’s students and talked about the impact of its work on behalf of families.

In recent years, Gonzaga has begun offering a service immersion trip for rising seniors to Los Angeles that includes working with both Dolores Mission as well as Homeboy Industries, a gang rehabilitation and youth program founded by Father Gregory Boyle, S.J. During the assembly, a student who went on last year’s trip to Los Angeles read a reflection about his experiences at Dolores Mission. The presentation then wrapped up with thoughtful questions from students and faculty members.