Lambdas in the Community is a monthly biography of a Brother of Lambda Theta Phi who is doing great and important work in his community, and exemplifying the Brotherhood’s motto of “Chivalry Above Self.” The Brother below is but one example of how Lambda Theta Phi is leading the Latino Greek movement.
Name: Jaime Carias
Chapter: Gamma Delta (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Semester: Spring 2005 Beta Line #3
Hometown: South Central Los Angeles
Profession: Education: Recruiter/Counselor (California State University, Long Beach & Vice-President (College Success Services)
State of Residence: California
Email: ">
CAREER SUMMARY
Jaime Carias is a founding partner of College Success Services an educational consulting firm dedicated to solving today’s toughest social problems by developing highly motivational, evidence-based, and result driven programming aimed at supporting at-promise youth and parents. His ability to develop effective, holistic, and innovative programming aimed at fostering college-going cultures has given Carias the opportunity to collaborate with elected officials, school districts, public policy think tanks, community leaders, nonprofit organizations, and colleges/universities across the country. In addition, he is a Recruiter at CSU Long Beach for the College Assistance Migrant Program.
BACKGROUND
Carias was born and raised in the low-income community of South Central Los Angeles where as a young boy he saw how poverty, violence, drugs, and lack of opportunities resulted in an “ongoing war” in his community. At an early age he was inspired to impact and change underserved communities like his.
Carias holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) from the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy. In his dynamic and heartfelt motivational presentations, Carias uses his life experiences, academic preparation, and decade of experience counseling parents and youth to educate participants on how education can be used as a tool to increase an individual’s financial, social, human, and cultural capital. He speaks to students, parents, and administrators about collecting cans at USC, selling bottled waters at local parks throughout Los Angeles, and cleaning houses in affluent neighborhoods when he was a child to receiving his M.P.P. degree from USC’s top ten ranked School of Public Policy. He educates students on the importance of thinking about and pursuing opportunities that will prepare them to become successful professionals. Since 2003, Jaime has organized and served as a keynote speaker at an array of community and high school to college transition conferences intended to motivate and educate youth and parents on the importance of pursuing higher education. He is the co-author along with Dr. Victor Rios, Associate Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Barbara, of the forthcoming book Buscando Vida Y Encontradno Exito Escolar: Apoyando a Nuestros Hijos con La Fuerza de Nuestra Cultura which will provide parents with a solid, thorough training that will have a lasting impact on their ability to become full participants in their children’s education in both English and Spanish.
WHAT WAS YOUR TRANSFORMATIVE MOMENT?
One of the many transformative moments for my career came in January 2007 when I successfully wrote a grant for $5,000 for the 1st Annual From the Barrio to Academia Conference held at UC Santa Barbara. At the time, I did not think much of the event other than another student outreach conference lead by the fraternity. Little did I know, that this conference would change the way in which I saw and understood education and would serve as the building block to many future conferences. My message to the undergraduates is dream big and any small event you organize for your chapter can be the building block for your future success.
Not only has From the Barrio to Academia blossomed into a dynamic conference, this upcoming January 2014 will be the 8th Annual event, but it has established a model for other chapters to look at when developing student outreach conferences. I have made it a personal commitment to attend and speak at every conference. This past January 2013, College Success Services provided all of the speakers for the event and The Quest featured an article on the event. I look forward to continuing to participate in this conference.
WHY DID YOU JOIN LAMBDA THETA PHI?
I joined Lambda Theta Phi as a 19 year old sophomore at UCSB. During my freshmen year, my high school friend and college roommate Elser Arroyo, Founding Brother #1 GD Chapter, had successfully brought Lambda Theta Phi to campus. When the interest group for the founding line was formed back in Fall 2003, Elser and the other 5 founding brothers reached out to me to see if I was interested in joining the interest group. At the time, I had a bad vision and idea of Greeks in general, as a lot of incoming first generation freshmen do. I respectfully declined and they proceed to establish Lambda Theta Phi in March 2004.
After Lambda Theta Phi was established on campus, flocks of brothers began visiting campus for events, recruitment activities, fundraising parties, philanthropy events, and long holiday weekends. At the time we were still living in the dorms and brothers began to stay in our tiny dorm room. It was at this moment, that my vision and idea of Greeks slowly began to change. Brothers began sharing with me why they had joined Lambda; the nationwide brotherhood, commitment to giving back to our communities, and the ability to create change through a national movement of brothers all working towards common goals. Brothers also shared with me the importance of networking but most importantly always gave me the option to choose whether Lambda was for me or not. They all encouraged me to research exactly what Greek letter organization I wanted to join if indeed Greek life was for me. That spring and summer I began to consistently attend Lambda functions throughout Southern California. Eventually I realized that Lambda was what I had been in search for and what would serve as my backbone and support to push me throughout college and life after college.
HOW DID LAMBDA THETA PHI IMPACT YOUR VISION?
Lambda Theta Phi taught me the foundations of leadership, innovation, and collaboration. Many brothers do not realize the value each leadership position can instill upon you. It is like the old saying goes “you get what you put in” and this holds very true. As a neo, I became Community Service chair and went on to establish an outreach conference. After that, I served as Chapter President and established several protocols and programs that are still operation within my chapter to this day.
Many of the skills you acquire through chapter leadership positions can be applied to everyday situations and in your future professional careers. I still find myself today using several of the skill sets acquired as an undergraduate in my career. It is very important to use your undergraduate years to begin to develop a skill set that will launch you into your future.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW?
I continue to impact education in any way possible. College Success Services recently finished filming a documentary, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAMtuhckQS4, for Project GRIT (Generating Resiliency to Inspire Transformation) at YO Watts a community center in Watts, CA. We developed a holistic program aimed at motivating and transforming at-promise youth at YO Watts. Project GRIT aimed to equip these youth with tools to help them transform their lives and become positive contributors to their communities.
In addition, I continue to work at CSU Long Beach as a Recruiter for the College Assistance Migrant Program along with moving College Success Services forward. Next summer, College Success Services will host our 1st Annual SOAR Program (Striving for Opportunities in Academics Residential Program) where we will host students for a 1 week intensive academic & motivational program on the UCSB campus.
HOW CAN LAMBDA BE INVOLVED IN YOUR WORK?
Lambda will always be involved. I have reached out to brothers to assist me with the development of College Success Services. Currently, Salvador Ortega-Ortiz (Alpha Iota) is one of our featured speakers for College Success Services. He has grown and developed over the past three years and has the passion to help youth and parents create a college-going culture. Please see the amazing feature done on his story by the Santa Maria Times, he recently served as the keynote speaker for two great educational events in Santa Maria: http://santamariatimes.com/news/local/education/atrevete-a-so-ar/article_cb215962-0248-11e3-a29b-001a4bcf887a.html
I aspire to mentor brothers in any way that I possibly can. Ideally, I would like Lambda to make it a requirement for every chapter to host some type of outreach program for youth within their communities. You can even do this jointly with a female organization so the young ladies attending such events feel welcomed and heard. At times due to our busy schedules and life we forget where we came from or why we made it to college or how. I would like to assist in the development of such a model. When I was an undergraduate, I wished I would have had more mentorship from older professional brothers within the field of education. Now I feel it is my turn to pay this back. Please feel free to email me at