Heritage University Recognizes It’s Top Alumna

A news release from Heritage University recognizes Magaly Solis, currently the citizenship program manager at La Casa Hogar in Yakima, Wash., as this year’s recipient of the Violet Lumley Rau Alumna of the Year award.

Citizenship program manager, Solis connects people to their dreams of U.S. citizenship and all the opportunities it brings to them. “Magaly exemplifies the ideals and values of Heritage University—excellence, inclusion, perseverance, leadership and service,” said David Wise, vice president of Advancement. “She demonstrates her commitment to helping others and building communities every day in her personal and professional life. We are so proud of her and proud to call her an Eagle.”

Magaly Solis graduated from Heritage in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Education as the first in her family to obtain a college degree. As a teenager she immigrated from the state of Guerrero, Mexico to Mabton, Washington.

“Heritage University offered me a pathway to achieve my educational goals...The education I received at Heritage has allowed me to positively impact many lives in our community,” said Solis. “I am honored to receive the Violet Lumley Rau 2020 Alumna of the Year.

Under Ms. Solis’s leadership, the program has grown from her original part-time single position to an office of four full-time staff members and 50 volunteers. She used her Heritage education to write the program’s first comprehensive citizenship curriculum in 2016 and the number of people who completed the program and are now citizens rose from a few hundred to now over 1,200-- representing 10% of the entire eligible population in Yakima County.

Outside of her work commitments, Ms. Solis was just appointed in July of 2020 as a Board member of the Yakima YWCA and a member of the City of Yakima’s Community Integration Committee. She also volunteers with the Yakima Yoga Collective  and is an avid outdoors-woman serving as a role model among Latina women exploring the outdoors and in mountaineering.