#  Student Profile: Jesus Murillo, MTS '22 

 





November 03, 2022

 

 

     ![Jesus Murillo, MTS '22](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds2/files/cravath_-_j_murillo_900.jpg?itok=waCMTbXm) 

Jesus Murillo, MTS '22.

 



 

"I don't think I would have understood the gravitas of my calling if I hadn't come to the Divinity School; now that I've learned all this theory and history, I want to turn these teachings into practical solutions for communities in need."

"Education, for me, has always been a tool of liberation," says Jesus Murillo, MTS '22. The youngest of five siblings, Murillo was born in a small mining town in New Mexico. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother moved their family to California's Central Valley to give her children access to better educational opportunities. Eventually, Murillo's mother remarried, to a man who migrated to the United States from Mexico and worked as an agricultural field worker. As a child, Murillo would help his family pick walnuts to generate additional income. "Growing up in that environment," Murillo shares, "I was thinking, 'how is it that we live in what is known as the greatest country on earth, but people who look like my family struggle to make ends meet?' The social and economic issues that I experienced became entwined with wanting to  
be a contributor in solving them."

When Murillo was navigating the college application process as a first-generation student, his guidance counselor tried to dissuade him from considering higher education. Murillo persevered: "Seeing how hard my mother worked to support me and my siblings, I thought, 'I need to figure this out."' After getting accepted to his local community college, he met representatives from Fisk University and was offered a full scholarship as a transfer student. Fisk stood out to Murillo as an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). Murillo, who is African American, Chicano, and Indigenous Mescalero Apache, wanted to explore his Black identity further, as well as his calling to do social justice work. "At Fisk, I really learned who I wanted to be, and learned more about my call, my purpose, and my passions, which led me to Harvard Divinity School."

At HDS, Murillo studied religion, ethics, and politics, which brought his professional ambitions into sharper focus. He adds that HDS helped him learn about the importance of intersectional work in bringing resources to the communities that need them the most. Murillo is currently a 2022-23 John Robert Lewis Fellow at The Faith & Politics Institute and will be attending Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, where he will study the intersection of social and national security policies.

"The work that I aim to do has been led, influenced, and guided by my time at the Divinity School," he states­ emphasizing that both HDS and his upbringing taught him to "maintain the humanity" in his work. "My studies at HDS have shown me that the issues we research and discuss in these elite spaces have real-world effects on folks that don't even know these spaces exist. And as for me, growing up picking walnuts and now being in this academic arena, I recognize that I was constantly affected by the decisions made by leaders that come from schools like Harvard. That is going to 100-percent influence how I address policy, making sure that those most affected stay at the forefront. I'm grateful to HDS for offering me that humane lens to address real world issues."

*—by Sarah Rubin*



 

 

 



 

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