In celebration of Latinx Heritage Month, Diversity Education and the LatinX Council hosted “Dinner with Malena Higuera ’75,” where Malena Higuera spoke about her experience as the first Latina to graduate from Stevens. Higuera is a high-level executive in the cosmetic industry. For over 25 years, Malena’s creativity and business savvy have brought success at companies like Revlon, Coty, Honeywell, Ajinomoto, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, P&G, Elizabeth Arden, Unilever, and more. Today, Higuera is Managing Partner at MAldecoa & Associates, LLC. Prior to these accomplishments and her time at Stevens, Higuera immigrated from Cuba in 1968 with her family a year into the evacuations triggered by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Higuera was among the first class of women admitted to Stevens when the university became co-ed in 1971. During her time at Stevens, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and her master’s degree in Management Science, as well as serving as the Secretary of the Latin American Association.
After asking Stevens students attending the event for their names, majors, and backgrounds, Higuera began with words of advice: “One piece of advice that I give you, more than anything else — I give it to a woman, I give it to a man — just go out there. As much as you can say, ‘I’m from here and I’m from there,’ just be a good professional.” She stressed the importance of proving yourself, as, “it is what will get you places.” She also expressed her everlasting belief that Stevens is one of the best in the country, a university that will “open doors.” In honor of Latinx Heritage Month, she expressed her belief of how the “Latin community and minority community in this country are very powerful,” following up with more wisdom: “The more you get to know people, the more you realize one thing: we all want the same things and we’re all very similar, no matter where you are.” Her opening statement closed with telling the crowd of young students to cherish their friendships and to enjoy the time they will spend at Stevens.
Higuera described her early life in Hoboken as well as her experience before leaving Cuba. Her father took her out of school in 7th grade due to the political situation, resulting in Higuera spending her final year in Cuba as what she describes as a “housewife.” Once she arrived in Hoboken, she was met with the obstacles of not speaking English and missing out on school after leaving in 7th grade. With the help of her aunt, she was enrolled in the 9th grade and graduated Hoboken High School on honor roll. At the time, Hoboken consisted of a long lineage of families of European descent, but there was also a Hispanic community of mainly Puerto Ricans and Ecuadorians in which Higuera grew up. When asked if there was any discrimination or racial tension between the groups, Higuera explains that back in ’60s and ’70s Hoboken, “The immigrants, they were really good people and working people, but the culture was different. There was no hatred, there was just a lack of understanding.”
Before landing her spot in the first class of female students at Stevens, Higuera wanted to become an architect. However, due to her traditional upbringing, she was unable to attend college outside the neighborhood. Her mother pushed her to apply to Stevens, which at the time was male-only. Miraculously, one day in her homeroom class, her teacher announced that Stevens was beginning to accept applications from women. While telling this part of her story at the dinner, Higuera joked, “I always tell everybody that ‘Stevens accepted women because my mother was praying so hard.'” Through a remedial program and her strong math skills, Higuera earned her spot as Stevens.
“We were really fighting, the 19 of us, to be engineers.” Higuera remembers her and her fellow female classmates having to constantly ask the administration to not interfere in their education, as they did not want special treatment or attention. She states, “At some point the deans were making a big deal of us. They wanted to help, they wanted us to succeed because if we had been a failure — could you imagine? And the girls stopped that, we did not want to be treated differently. We were shining in our work and accomplishments.” Though 12 out of the 19 graduated, all the women did well at their time at Stevens and were also active in student clubs. At the time, Higuera admits, she didn’t realize the impact that she and the other women were having on the future of female Stevens students: “We were just studying, we didn’t have time to think!” Higuera is thankful for her experience as one of the very few females at Stevens, as it is what helped her survive being the only female engineer in companies and hopes that women at Stevens now can also use their experiences to succeed in the workplace.
The highly anticipated question of the evening was asked to Higuera: How was your life after Stevens? Like her opening statement, she began by emphasizing the ability to be very flexible and to learn different things. In answering the question, Higuera told us stories of the many jobs and opportunities that have come from graduating as a chemical engineer, and her own personal endeavors where she had to juggle her roles as a wife, mother, and professional. After leaving Exxon and having her first daughter, she quit working entirely and was out of the workforce for four years. Higuera shared her turmoil with the sentiment that a woman could not re-enter the workplace after leaving for a few years, and her inability to travel due to her now ex-husband’s traditional views. However, by sticking to her philosophy, Higuera threw herself forward, not only succeeding in becoming the only female director in the world for a Japanese cosmetic company but coming back to chemical engineering at the request of another company after 20 years of holding important business jobs! Higuera laughed while sharing, “I haven’t done engineering in 20 years, so my kids are like ‘Mom, you’re crazy if you think you can go back to engineering,’ and I’m like, ‘we’ll see.’”
She continued to share insight through her countless positions in different companies, and told the students, “You get a job, you think you know what you want, but it doesn’t take you that way. Then somebody calls you and says, ‘two Japanese people are looking for someone to manage this.’ It opens your whole world. You just have to take the opportunities and learn.” Networking, Higuera states, made her last five jobs possible, as she was personally recommended by her employers or even friends at other companies. “My life is crazy. I quit a job and then I end up going to the same job years later. As a matter of fact, the day that I left Revlon I stood in front of the building and said, ‘One day I’m gonna come back as a vice president,’ and son of a gun, I did. It was so accidental.”
Despite her limited college options, Higuera truly admired Stevens for what it gave her. She describes the ’60s and ’70s as being a “crazy” time in the world, and Stevens made her feel safe. When a student asked what her favorite thing was about Stevens, Higuera reminisced, “Stevens has a certain Old World elegance that I like. It had a tradition. It had a discipline. I have never regretted it.” She shares that whenever she has a problem or is stressed, “I come to Castle Point. I always find it. And I hope you guys do too.”
If you missed this event, you can come and meet Higuera when she presents her opening keynote at the LeadHERship Conference happening in Babbio on November 16. For those interested, registration will open soon for all students, faculty, and staff for this all-day conference.
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