Joplin, MO: How I Got Connected to My Community
Moving, whether it’s across town or across the country, can be stressful. And once it’s over, a new challenge presents itself: How to plug into your new community? While it’s exciting to explore a new shopping and dining scene and cultural attractions, you have to search for new organizations and clubs to join and find a new friend group.
When Cynthia Torres relocated to Joplin, MO, from Southern California to attend school nine years ago, she faced all these things, but she worked to adapt to her new community and brought her own skills and viewpoints to share.
Torres, who has a Master of Science in education, is program manager for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Kansas City University (KCU). She shares how she created her place in and got connected to the thriving community of Joplin, MO.
When you moved to Joplin, MO, did you see yourself living and working here almost 10 years later?
I’m a “Joplinite” now, but for the first four years, it didn’t really feel like home. I came as a student athlete to attend Missouri Southern State University and had every intention of moving back to California once I graduated. That’s not what happened. Life can surprise you.
What happened after college that changed your trajectory?
I graduated with a degree in secondary education, but I didn’t go into teaching right away. I wound up working for the State of Kansas for a bit, doing migrant education and traveling all over Kansas helping migrant families and doing advocacy work for them. That, and working with schools to allocate resources, really opened my eyes.
When I first moved here, I didn’t see anyone who looked like me, then I went out into the smaller towns and found them to be very diverse, so suddenly, I was finding my community in these regional bases where I had a place. I really fell in love with that and loved that I could be a big resource in these communities by offering translating and interpretation work and helping families navigate the education system.
What came next?
I decided to stay and begin my teaching career. I did that for three years, and then a job at KCU opened up. It fell in line with what I wanted to do, which was focus on diversity work, and so I applied. I have now been here for three years. A lot of my journey has been by happenstance – things that have inspired me to stay and things that have led me to the next opportunity.
What groups or organizations did you seek out once you settled in?
I tried to plug in everywhere. I looked at education organizations, and then discovered the Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri, where they needed a translator and an interpreter. I have met amazing people doing great work since beginning that volunteer activity. Also, as an undergraduate, I did advocacy work for students who were under the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) law, as I am, and began a scholarship in the hopes that someone else who is coming here for school would receive that aid.
How else did you go about meeting people?
During my undergrad years, I was spending a lot of time with athletes, people who were cross-country and track-and-field runners like me, and I didn’t always feel like I belonged since they were predominantly white. I wanted to meet more women of color and be a part of important conversations about inclusion and belonging in a place.
I went on Facebook and saw that a feminist group had formed, and I went and shared a little bit about myself and made a dear friend who works as a transportation planner for the city. Through her, I’ve made lots more great friends, and so I built a community of people to engage with or just hang out with.
How are you sharing what you’ve learned and continue to learn?
I have been invited to several events to share my story, and from there, things have snowballed. I continue to meet great people who have donated to my scholarship and are interested in the work. They, in turn, connect me with other great people. I am finding the more I put myself out there, the more opportunities and people are finding me.
What advice do you have for newcomers as far as getting connected to their new community of Joplin, MO?
I would say that it’s easy to complain about things not going well, no matter where you live, but if you’re not actively involved, then you are also part of the problem. It comes down to doing the work to find the people and groups you connect with. Just join in and try things. I’ve grown so much in my time here, and it always leads to new things. Recently, I took part in a Bike Walk Joplin event on how to advocate for safer streets. Find the ways to get you really thinking about the place you are in because we’re borrowing that place from future generations – why wouldn’t you want to be involved in ways to make it better for them?
This article is sponsored by Choose Joplin, which is actively supported by the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce and the City of Joplin.
