Norma Torres Mendoza was born in Queretaro, Mexico to a single mother who held three jobs to support her family. Norma and her mother were literally and figuratively hungry for a better life, one with an actual opportunity to escape the cycle of poverty that they were destined to experience. This ultimately led them to immigrate to Houston in the back of an eighteen-wheeler looking for the American Dream.
Growing up undocumented, however, Norma questioned the American Dream as she saw her Latinx friends on different trajectories. Some did not finish high school and others saw their dreams banished in the juvenile system. This was the impetus that led Norma to work for change in her community. At age 19, she cofounded the Young Owls Leadership Program, a non-profit that has raised over $250,000 and helped over 400 students in the Houston-area become the first ones in their families to attend college. It was through this project that she discovered her love and passion to serve as a bridge of resources for non-profits through consulting work.
Norma has consulted for numerous non-profits, businesses, and governmental agencies on their vision, expansion strategy, fundraising tactics, and technology integrations. She also attended the Harvard Kennedy School and received a master’s in public policy. After business school she hopes to launch a non-profit consulting firm that will explore big questions about how to create transformative social change by providing interconnected social solutions that are nuanced in ways that cut across sector lines to expand the American Dream.
