Antonia Pantoja

Antonia Pantoja
Dr. Antonia Pantoja
Born	September 13, 1922 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Died	May 24, 2002 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Nationality	Puerto Rican
Occupation	educator, social worker, feminist and civil rights leader
Notes
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996

Dr. Antonia Pantoja (September 13, 1922 – May 24, 2002), educator, social worker, feminist, civil rights leader and founder of ASPIRA, the Puerto Rican Forum, Boricua College and Producir.

Pantoja was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico where she received her primary and secondary education. She was later able to study at the University of Puerto Rico with the financial help given to her by her wealthy neighbors. There she obtained a teacher's certificate in 1942. In 1944 she moved to New York City where she found a job as a welder in a wartime factory. She subsequently won a scholarship to Hunter College in Manhattan, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1952. She then studied at Columbia University's New York School of Social Work, where she earned her master's degree in 1954. In 1973, she earned her Ph.D. from Union Graduate School (now Union Institute & University) in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1957, Pantoja founded the Puerto Rican Forum (originally the Hispanic American Youth Association or HAYA), which served as an incubator for organizations and programs promoting economic self-sufficiency. This organization is now known as the National Puerto Rican Forum and is headquartered in The Bronx.

In 1961, Pantoja also founded ASPIRA (Spanish for "aspire"), a non-profit organization that promoted a positive self-image, commitment to community, and education as a value as part of the ASPIRA Process to Puerto Rican and other Latino youth in New York City. ASPIRA now has offices in six states, Puerto Rico and has its headquarters, the ASPIRA Association, in Washington, D.C.. It has provided approximately 50,000 Latino students with career and college counseling, financial aid and other assistance, and is today one of the largest nonprofit agencies in the Latino community. In 1963 Dr. Pantoja directed a project of the Puerto Rican Forum that resulted in the establishment of the Puerto Rican Community Development Project (PRCDP), funded by the federal War on Poverty.

In 1964, Dr. Pantoja shifted her emphasis from self-help programs to the reformation of the educational system and in 1967 she served on a mayoral committee, convened by the then Mayor of New York City, John Lindsay, that recommended the decentralization of the school system.