Twice a month, a group of students gather at the Center for the Common Good, peeking in to ask if they can pet the dogs. Around the same time, the joyful sounds of two playful corgis can be heard echoing throughout the space. These two adorable corgis are the fur babies of Manuela Hill-Muñoz, the director of social impact and communications at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
With her warm smile and cerulean mushroom-print glasses, Hill-Muñoz, energetically welcomes students, inviting them to get cozy with a cup of tea, coffee, or hot cocoa. She’ll chat up a storm with student workers, all while filling the room with her unique blend of compassion and creativity. She credits the relationships she’s built as a driving influence in her work.
Hill-Muñoz has been at the University of St. Thomas for 10 years. “It feels like it was just yesterday that I started,” she said, recalling her early days leading student engagement in create[space], an arts and craft innovation hub. In those beginning days, she made frequent trips to Hobby Lobby, and began developing the programs that would help shape create[space] into what it is today. It was this integration of art and activism that started her on her changemaking journey.
![Manuela Hill-Munoz in create[space] with student](https://news.stthomas.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Manuela_CreateSpace_vertical_240917bvw053_014-683x1024.jpg)
“I have these two proactive pathways,” she said. “It was easy to bring in an artist who was a social activist; we were able to do a beautiful blend.”
Now, Hill-Muñoz oversees programming initiatives that include VISION and CEVEA, while also managing social media and content for the Office for Mission and the Division of Student Affairs. She first got involved with the VISION program when it transitioned from Campus Ministry to the Center for the Common Good, and she is now in her second year supporting the program.
The VISION program offers students service-learning opportunities both domestically and abroad, with a focus on Central and Latin America. She described the experience as “beautiful, nostalgic, and bittersweet.”
Born in Medellín, Colombia, and fluent in Spanish, Hill-Muñoz can relate to some of the families she and the St. Thomas students encounter during the VISION trips. Her childhood also reflects the convictions she has working at a Catholic institution. She attended a private school primarily run by nuns. She said the sisters fostered a fun, spiritual and educational experience as well as a strong sense of service. They introduced her to the idea of helping others when she was preparing for her first communion in third grade. “I remember we had to go volunteer in an underserved neighborhood and fundraise for groceries and do a food pantry,” she said.
Her passion for serving others deepened after her family moved to Tampa, Florida, where she participated in a summer teen empowerment program. “It really catapulted me to want to learn more about social justice, how I engage in my community and how I can contribute to what I now know to be the common good,” Hill-Muñoz said.
Originally, Hill-Muñoz wanted to give back by becoming an elementary school teacher. Her experience in the classroom propelled her toward higher education and student affairs. "I was doing a practicum in a third-grade classroom, and I was helping them figure out their reading assignment for the week. I made a joke, and they didn't get it,” she said. She realized she preferred the intellectual engagement that comes with working with adult learners, and working at a Catholic university like St. Thomas allowed her to bring together several of her passions.
“It was just this different conversation of mission, purpose and walking with students,” she said. “There was a potential for conversations around how do you do faith development, but also, how do you find what you're good at and what your talents are, and how do your talents meet the world needs? And I feel like I really liked that, and so I was looking to continue in that field as a career.”
Her work engaging with Tommies through CEVEA is one of the fulfilling outcomes for her. CEVEA is a Civic Engagement Voter Education & Advocacy collaborative effort at St. Thomas. Because of the taskforce, the university has been rated as a top voter-friendly university for several years running.
Exercising one’s right to vote holds special meaning for Hill-Muñoz. A naturalized U.S. citizen, she became eligible to vote in 2019. She said, “Culturally, it was a moment of pride, being able to share culture with others.”
That year is when Hill-Muñoz casted her first vote in U.S. elections. Her journey to voting fuels her passion for helping others engage with the political process.
“It was a local election year. There was only one city councilperson up for reelection, and so I voted for them,” she said. “It was very non-climactic, but I remember being like, ‘I gotta vote this year, right? Like, I can, so I will,’” she said. “I’ve been going to elections ever since, and I think it’s also even that much more empowering because of the work that I do now.”
Morgan Whiting ’26, one of the student voting ambassadors, speaks highly of Hill-Muñoz’s leadership. “Manuela is one of the best role models I have had in my life. She is extremely supportive and will make sure that I have all the resources I need. She always provides constructive criticism, which has allowed me to grow tremendously as an intern, a student, and just as a human,” Whiting said.
Hill-Muñoz said her path to Catholic higher education was a decision she made long before her involvement with student leadership.
Today, she serves as a board member for the Association of Student Affairs at Catholic Colleges and Universities (ASACUU) and, in 2023, co-chaired the planning of the national conference, further strengthening her dedication to Catholic education.
Manuela hill Muñoz"I fell in love with the opportunity to engage in deeper, more meaningful conversations with students about vocation, religion, and faith."
Hill-Muñoz remains optimistic about the future and the students she works with every day. Helping others discover and embrace their ability to lead and effect change isn’t just a job to her, it’s also a mission.
"I think that our students will continue to really make a positive impact in the world. It's super important to nurture that from the beginning. Oftentimes college, for a lot of people, is that time in their lives where they're like, ‘Oh, I can have agency, and I can see how this plays out,’" she said. "One of the things that I really love that we do in our Center for the Common Good is bring that agency to right now. You can make a difference while you're in college; you can make a difference as soon as you graduate."
