Started on the Junior Board, Now He’s Here

Each year Urban Initiatives expands its sports based youth development programming into new schools and communities across Chicago. The number of kids we serve grows every year and that growth leads to exciting opportunities and additions to the Urban Initiatives team. From Operations to Programming, our new team members will help Urban Initiatives continue to serve thousands of kids across Chicago.

Meet Miguel! Miguel joins the UI team as Development Director, a brand new position that will help ensure Urban Initiatives programming impacts as many kids as possible for many more years to come!

What drew you to Urban Initiatives?

I have known Jim and Dan for a long time so I watched them form Urban Initiatives and have witnessed its incredible growth over the years. I’m proud to be a longtime UI supporter from the first Halloween Bash to my recent participation on the Junior Board.

What are you most excited for in your new role?

I am most excited to work with the UI team to grow the development program and to think of creative ways to keep growing. The UI team does so many amazing things throughout the city and a big part of my job will be to help share that story.

What’s your favorite sports or play memory?

My favorite sports memory is playing baseball with my cousins in my parents’ yard as a kid. There were a lot of us and we would play all day nearly every day through the summer.

What’s one thing  most people don’t know about you?

Back in the summer of 2002 I designed a mural that was painted on the Mural Building, overlooking the Kennedy Expressway at Ashland Avenue. I was doing freelance art through Gallery 37 at the time and LaSalle Bank invited a few of us to submit designs with the theme being “The City that Works.”

What’s your favorite snack food?

I’m not a big snacker, but usually fruit like apples, tangerines, or avocados. On the unhealthy side, regular potato chips or plantain chips are favorites.

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