Young Alumni of the Year Award

Kelly Hogan Ibarra, Arts ’09 and Irving A. Ibarra, Arts ’11
Milwaukee, Wis.

Kelly and Irving Ibarra are committed to helping young people on their education journey, especially diverse students of limited means. They credit Jesuit values for inspiring them.

Kelly teaches AP English at Milwaukee’s Cristo Rey High School “where most of my students are the sons and daughters of Mexican immigrants,” she explains. She is passionate about helping them engage with literature and grow as writers. Irving is program director for All-In Milwaukee, a comprehensive college completion program that supports diverse, high-potential students with limited income.

Irving remembers that when he arrived in Milwaukee from Mexico as a child he received a warm welcome at his Jesuit elementary school. His middle school principal and high school counselor helped foster his dream of attending college, and he became part of the founding class of Marquette’s Urban Scholars Program, launched by President Fr. Robert A. Wild. “It strengthened my desire to help others as I had been helped,” he says.

Kelly also had a formative interaction with President Fr. Wild. In her first year at Marquette, she wrote to him to request additional scholarship money, explaining that she hoped to teach at a Catholic high school and was concerned her future salary would not match her tuition costs. To her surprise, he responded by increasing her scholarship. “I would love to tell him now that it was worth his generosity!” she says.

Irving and Kelly are deeply involved in their community, coaching youth soccer and volunteering at the school their three children attend. Irving also serves on the Board of Trustees for Nativity Jesuit, the school that first welcomed him to the United States.

Kelly says she is moved when she sees Marquette’s “Be The Difference” signs around Milwaukee. “I am reminded,” she says, “of how Marquette instilled that desire in me to truly make a difference in the lives of those I serve.”

Fun Facts:

What is one of your favorite Marquette memories?

Irving: “Graduation. It was a moment when I not only achieved what I set out to do — attend and graduate from college — but also a time when I felt surrounded by the love and support of so many people.”

Kelly: “When my friends (and English major comrades) Charlie Puckett, Arts ’10, and Peter Hejny, Arts ’09, reenacted a scene from Shakespeare’s Henry V using a road bike as a horse in Dr. Zurcher’s class!”