Exeter, NH (February 19, 2007)—Phillips Exeter Academy will host Maria Cabildo ’85, executive director of the East Los Angeles Community Corporation, in its yearlong celebration of Harkness on March 4–5, 2007. As the Academy’s 11th Harkness Fellow to visit the campus, Cabildo will speak to the student assembly on social service, the work of the ELACC, and comment on her personal life choices, specifically professional community development. She will visit classes, and meet with the Hispanic/Latino students and PEA’s Diversity Council. These events are not open to the public.  

Born and raised in East Los Angeles, Cabildo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, and was the first person in her family to graduate. In 1989, she earned a bachelor’s from Columbia College, and later earned a master’s from UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning. After graduation, she began her career as a planning assistant working for then Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

For the next six years (1993–99), Cabildo served as deputy director of A Community of Friends (ACOF), a developer of service-enriched affordable housing in southern California. Her first development project was a $5-million apartment complex in East Los Angeles for homeless adults with special needs. During her tenure at ACOF, Cabildo helped secure more than $25 million for the development of housing throughout Los Angeles County.

In 1999, she became the second executive director of East L.A. Community Corporation (ELACC), which she had helped to found in 1995. As executive director, she is charged with implementing a grass-roots community revitalization strategy for Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles.   The mission of the ELACC is to build grass-roots leadership, self-sufficiency and access to economic development opportunities for low- and moderate-income families in sections of East Los Angeles, with a focus on housing, education and employment issues. Working with the community and other organizations, ELACC has organized and mobilized local residents to demand economic and social justice, educational equity and accountable development, making homeownership possible for very low-income families. ELACC leveraged more than $50 million in housing resources into Boyle Heights and unincorporated East Los Angeles.  

Harkness teaching and learning began 75 years ago with an educational experiment that placed 12 students and one teacher around an oval table, and remains the hallmark of Exeter’s educational philosophy to this day. Philanthropist Edward Harkness, Principal Lewis Perry and a group of senior faculty together transformed almost every aspect of school life and influenced secondary school education throughout the country. The Harkness plan offers a generous opportunity for dialogue and the ability to hear the voice of each student. The Harkness table places students at the center of the learning process and encourages them to learn from one another.  

For the rest of the school year, lectures, exhibitions and visits from a distinguished group of Harkness Fellows will be a part of the celebration for this historic Harkness milestone. Many of the featured guests are alumni/ae, who will each spend several days on campus attending classes, meeting with students and faculty, and giving talks.

For more information, please call Rick Schubart at (603) 777-3589. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call (603) 777-4330. For more information on other events, contact the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309, or visit the Academy website at www.exeter.edu.  

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, students come from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds. The diverse student body comes from approximately 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and 26 foreign countries.    



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