“Difference, for me, is a plus. The more we embrace it, celebrate it, open our minds to it, the richer we will become as a nation,” said Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch, founder of Educational Achievement Services Inc., who spoke as part of NAVAIR’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month Oct. 6 in Patuxent River, Md. Kickbusch’s talk, “Hispanic-Americans: Energizing Our Nation’s Diversity,” touched on the importance of recruiting, hiring and retaining Hispanic-Americans from all backgrounds at NAVAIR. (U.S. Navy photo)

Patuxent River, MD — Growing up in a small barrio in Texas to poor immigrant parents, Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch learned firsthand the importance of culture, tradition and “familia.”

Kickbusch, who spoke here Oct. 6 as part of NAVAIR’s Hispanic Heritage Month event, told a story of how, when she once lamented that she did not own a kite like all the other children, her father asked her to draw a picture of it in the mud. Then, he told her to build her vision, helping her find the materials and even asking her mother to whip up the glue in the kitchen – a mixture of flour and water. Then came its first flight; the two walked to the high point in the river to catch the wind. The homemade kite soared.

“My father put in me the greatest gift of all: curiosity,” Kickbusch, founder of Educational Achievement Services Inc., said. “He was providing a great foundation for me.”

Kickbusch explained that many Hispanic-Americans, like herself, grew up with the challenges of poverty, discrimination and illiteracy but learned to improvise, making homemade toys, building robots out of scrap parts and challenging preconceived notions about their community.

These skills, she said, are valuable to an organization such as NAVAIR.

“Math and science are not language dependent,” she said. She then asked the audience, “What is the algorithm for brilliance? Are you creating and looking for that brilliance? If your well is not producing the talent we used to take for granted, you’re going to have to look in new places.”

She urged NAVAIR hiring managers to serve as “dream makers,” not gatekeepers, and to look for new Hispanic talent by looking outside the traditional.

“If you want talent, it’s sitting in your offices, in your hallways, in that custodian, that administrative clerk, that young talent here on an internship,” she said. “Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Give realism and intention to the project of growing our next generation of Latino leaders.”

Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but one out of every five Latinos quits school, and only one out of 100 goes to college and graduates.

Kickbusch said she learned the value of hard work from her mother, a maid, who taught her to always do her job so well that even when no one is there to see it, the work speaks for itself. “I will not accept that mediocrity is part of your language,” her mother said, a lesson Kickbusch took with her as a young woman in the U.S. Army, later becoming the highest ranking Hispanic woman in the combat support field.

All it took, Kickbusch said, was access and opportunity, two things she urged NAVAIR managers to give to other Hispanic-Americans.

“It’s about changing paradigms in order for you to grow the next talent,” she said. “Reach out to this young talent that’s coming. Create an environment with which they identify.”

NAVAIR has approximately 1,600 Hispanic employees and its Hispanic Engagement Action Team (HEAT), founded in 2009, that focuses on recruiting, retaining and developing Hispanic employees and identifying potential hiring barriers.

“I’m a very strong believer that our command is made much stronger through diversity of thought, culture and background,” said new NAVAIR Commander Vice Adm. Paul Grosklags. “Events like this, where we celebrate that diversity, are an important part of what we’re going to do.”

The event, which was co-sponsored by HEAT and NAVAIR’s Equal Employment Opportunity/Diversity Office, also included two videos about Hispanic-Americans, a reading of the Department of the Navy’s Hispanic Heritage Month proclamation and a food tasting. Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.