If you have a passion for something, you’ll always find a way to make it part of your life.
Growing up, Diana Gutiérrez spoke nothing but Spanish at home with her parents, who came to the United States from Jalisco, Mexico. At her high school on Chicago’s West Side, she didn’t think twice about chatting with her best friend in Spanish.
College, however, was a different world.
Gutiérrez earned a full scholarship to DePaul University, a private, predominantly white, Catholic college in Chicago. But a year after she started, she wanted to quit.
“I felt underprepared; I didn’t feel like I belonged there,” she recalled. “I wasn’t fitting in. I felt I had no voice. I told my father and he told me I could either throw in the towel or use the towel to wipe the sweat off my brow and keep going.”
She kept going. She earned a bachelor’s degree, started a career in television news and came to Milwaukee’s WISN Channel 12 in 2021. Two years later, she became the first Latina evening news anchor in the state.
Gutiérrez shared her personal story of perseverance and professional achievement with Milwaukee Area Technical College students and staff on Wednesday, March 11, as part of the President’s Student Leadership Series.
Held once a semester and sponsored by the college’s office of Student Engagement and Community Impact, the President’s Student Leadership Series gives MATC students a unique opportunity to hear the educational and professional experiences of leaders in various careers.
Last October, Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski, an MATC alum, and Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita R. Ball shared their career journeys with students at the Oak Creek Campus.
“At these sessions, students hear the voice of leaders and see what leadership is in our community,” said MATC President Dr. Anthony Cruz, who hosted Wednesday’s event at the Downtown Milwaukee Campus.
Dr. Cruz talked to Gutiérrez about her background, her educational experience, her career and her community work. She also dispensed life advice and answered questions from the audience.
She said her turning point came when she followed her father’s advice and returned to DePaul, confident in her abilities and her standing.
“I knew that belonged there,” she said.
Later, while working on one of her first stories as a student, she signed off by saying her name using the proper Spanish pronunciation. “The way my parents gave it to me,” she told the crowd. “Being authentic helped me find that sense of belonging.”
At DePaul, she flashed her leadership skills by establishing a student chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. “I got everything up and running and then I graduated,” she said with a laugh. “But it still stands today. In the moment, I didn’t know I was being a leader.”
After graduating in 2016, she started her career in South Bend as a weekday reporter and weekend morning anchor. She said she learned as much on the job as she did in college learning how to do the job.
“Education is the base of everything, but you also need to let yourself be taught,” Gutiérrez said. “We all need to accept feedback and constructive criticism. That is how we grow.”
She spent two years at WCIU in Chicago before coming to Milwaukee. Since then she has won an Emmy Award, a regional Edward R. Murrow Award and a Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Award for best use of social media. In 2023, she was named one of Wisconsin’s 40 Most Influential Latino Leaders by Madison 365.
Gutiérrez also serves as a regional director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and is an executive board member of the Daisie Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting inner-city families.
She told the students to do something they love, even if it means doing something else to earn money in the meantime.
“If you have a passion for something, you’ll always find a way to make it part of your life,” she said. “If you love something, never let it go. One day, an opportunity may come.”
About MATC: Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s economy and has provided innovative education in the region since 1912. More than 35,000 students per year attend the college’s four campuses and community-based sites or learn online. MATC offers affordable and accessible education and training opportunities that empower and transform lives in the community. The college offers more than 180 academic programs — many that prepare students for jobs immediately upon completion and others that provide transfer options leading to bachelor’s degrees with more than 45 four-year colleges and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates build careers and businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.