Manny Fernandez is the Program Director of the Latino Enrollment Institute (LEI). He grew up in Southern California and lived there for the first 38 years of his life before recently moving to South Bend. He graduated from California State University at Los Angeles with a degree in Urban Learning, a teaching program designed specifically for working with at-risk children from poverty-stricken neighborhoods. He then taught at St. Vincent Elementary School, a Daughters of Charity school located just south of the heart of downtown Los Angeles, for twelve years. Upon moving to South Bend, he taught math and science to English language learners at Goshen Middle School for three years. Each year he was recognized by the state of Indiana for his students receiving the highest growth in test scores per the Indiana Department of Education’s testing growth module. He currently resides in South Bend with his wife and three young children. Even though he grew up on the west coast, and despite working across the street from USC for 12 years, he grew up a diehard Notre Dame fan and remains one to this day.