By Joe Ragusa

CHICAGO – An Illinois Wesleyan graduate has won the so-called “Genius Grant” this year.

Juan Salgado, a Chicago native who graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1991, is one of the 24 MacArthur Fellows that were announced Tuesday.

Salgado graduated in 1991 from IWU and currently runs the Instituto del Progreso Latino in Chicago. Salgado said the institute helps Latino immigrants with dynamic educational opportunities.

“What we’re doing is turning these immigrant families into successful college completers at the certificate level and middle-class families at the end of the day,” Salgado said.

Salgado founded the Instituto del Progreso Latino in 2001 to help low-income Latino immigrants in Chicago gain GED’s or vocational degrees in industries like manufacturing or health care.

Salgado said his time at Illinois Wesleyan was “instrumental” in driving his passion to help people move up in society.

“If I hadn’t been at a place where the professors were so close to the students, I may not have gotten turned on to the thing that (I’m) the most passionate for today,” Salgado said.

MacArthur Fellow recipients don’t know they’ve been nominated until they’re told they won. Salgado said he found out he won the day after Labor Day and the only person he could tell was his wife.

“It was actually kind of fun,” Salgado said about keeping it a secret until the announcement Tuesday. “People would be asking me, ‘What’s going on? There’s something happening, right?’ And you just kind of have a license to smile.”

The grant is paid out in quarterly installments over five years. Salgado said the money will go towards his continued work helping the Latino community in Chicago move up in society.

Joe Ragusa can be reached at [email protected].