MARIA VICTORIA SMITH COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER/WRITER

Maria Victoria “Vicki” A. Grageda-Smith was born in Angeles City, Philippines, the eldest among ten children in a family of modest means that valued education, above all, as an effective way to transcend poverty. Full academic merit scholarships from high school to college enabled her to attain the best education her native country had to offer, graduating from the University of the Philippines (U.P.) with Magna Cum Laude distinction in A.B. Political Science, and among the top one percent of her U.P. College of Law class. She then practiced law as associate attorney in Sycip, Salazar, Hernandez and Gatmaitan, one of the biggest, most distinguished law firms in Manila, before she became sole female counsel, at the time, to San Miguel Corporation, one of the largest, best-run global companies in Southeast Asia. After immigrating to the U.S. through marriage to an American, Vicki attended the University of Michigan Law School where she attained her Master of Laws degree. Subsequently, she found that the frequent international travel required of her husband, on top of the challenges of a mixedculture marriage, plus the responsibility of raising her children, absent the usual support of her network of Philippine family and friends were compelling reasons that called for radical reinvention of her vocation that led to her decision to choose to be an at-home parent. Becoming wife and mom did not, however, stop her from continuing to apply her multiple talents, skills and industry elsewhere. As it is with all who devote themselves with great passion and excellence to their chosen fields of endeavor, it did not take long before she distinguished herself in those other areas, as well—this time, in the service of her local Fil-Am community, and as a creative writer in the genres of poetry and fiction. Vicki’s style of leadership in public service is one that is unorthodox, to say the least: She purposely avoids and declines official positions of power and title. Her only goal and desire, she always states, is to be of genuine service to her community, without thought to fame or power—or, what she calls, “leading from behind.” Her employment of her leadership skills and talents in volunteering to help her local Iowa Fil-Am community, for instance, recently resulted in accomplishing a radical restructuring and reorganization of the Filipino-American Association of Iowa (FAAI) into a 21st century non-profit grass-roots organization that effectively empowers its members through inclusive and democratic participation in promoting and fulfilling association goals, uniquely utilizing and capitalizing upon the indigenous Philippine cultural, organizational and relationship concepts of “pagkakaisa,” “bayanihan,” and “pagka-maginoo” in inculcating and establishing good leadership values among FAAI members. Another key element of this program is the conscious recruitment, development and training of youth leaders to provide the critical source of new leadership for the longestablished Iowa Fil-Am community. In pursuing her childhood passion in writing poetry and fiction, Vicki draws upon her Philippine heritage and law practice years, her immigrant experience, and her family’s frequent travels abroad and relocations across the U.S. in support of her husband’s career that altogether combine to lend her a unique perspective that informs and inspires her writing. Today, she writes a monthly poetry column for the Chicago-based Fil-Am newsmagazine, VIA Times. Her poetry has been published in Lyrical Iowa; Dicta (the University of Michigan Law School Literary Journal); and other arts and literary publications. She founded and ran a poetry program for The Iowa Homeless Youth Shelters in 2007-2009. In 2002, she was chosen as a featured poet at the Austin International Poetry Festival. She continues to read and perform her poetry in a variety of poetry readings and festivals. She is the author of a full-length poetry book, Warrior Heart, Pilgrim Soul: An Immigrant’s Journey, and a chapbooklength manuscript, Incursions of Light. Warrior Heart, Pilgrim Soul: An Immigrant’s Journey features poems written over the last 20 years, chronicling the inherently conflicted yet ultimately rich, textured and hopeful journey of an immigrant woman compelled to confront and achieve a revolutionary redefinition of individual and national identity against a backdrop of life-changing circumstances and parallel historical shifts and developments in the U.S. and the world. Incursions of Light explores the soulful epiphanies that arise from the poet’s reflections on personal and societal events that cover a gamut of compelling issues in the realm of the philosophical, political and spiritual. Her fiction gained national U.S. recognition when her short story, Portrait of the Other Lady, won first place in a nation-wide short story contest. The short story and an interview of her were published in a Los Angeles-area newspaper (Portrait of an Award-Winning Short-Story Contest Winner, Ventura County Star Sunday Arts & Living Edition, November 28, 2004). She was selected as a participant in the 2005 UCLA Asian-American Writer’s Program and in the same year was interviewed and featured as an up-and-coming Asian-American writer in several media articles (Finding Their Voice, Philippine News [Los Angeles Area Newspaper Edition], July 6-12, 2006; Light in the Shadows, Philippinenews.com [San Francisco-based Online Edition], May 18, 2005). In pursuing her writing vocation, Vicki also served as officer of various writers’ clubs in Texas and California, conducted writers’ workshops, and managed her own writers’ critique guild until her move to Des Moines, Iowa which is home to her and her husband, Steve, and their children, Francesca and Travis. She is a member of the Iowa Poetry Association and the Des Moines-based poetry critique group, Omega. Vicky was nominated by Ms. Veronica Leighton