March 28, 2024

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Dominican University: Serving Latine Students In The Midwest

Dominican University: Serving Latine Students in the Midwest

Dominican University: Serving Latine Students In The Midwest

By: Verónica Gutiérrez, MBA’22, Dominican University, River Forest IL and Marcela Reales Visbal, Action Director for Title V, Element B – Advertising and marketing Submit-Baccalaureate Options for Hispanic People in america, Dominican University, River Forest IL

“I had by no means listened to of the term HSI until I came to Dominican University”, explained Verónica Gutiérrez, a very first-technology Latina who grew up in a person of Chicago’s northwestern suburbs and not long ago graduated with her Master’s in Small business Administration from Dominican.

Dominican University is a single of 30 Hispanic Serving Institutions in Illinois, and a single of 15 that delivers graduate programs.1 Whilst most HSIs are concentrated in the U.S. Southwest, Puerto Rico, and New York, Dominican proudly serves the midwestern Latine community. The faculty is regarded as Chicago’s Leading Catholic HSI.

Like Verónica, lots of college students at Dominican are initially-era higher education students and from traditionally marginalized communities in the Chicago metropolitan space. With Latine pupils accounting for 20% of faculty undergraduates in the United States, it is critical to be intentional about serving this subset of the population.2

How? By developing on students’ property and giving them applications and methods that will aid them thrive.

Considering the fact that the tumble of 2017 Dominican College has been awarded Title V and Title III grants aimed at expanding Latine and low-money university student achievements. These methods extend and improve academic choices, tutorial assist products and services for undergraduate and graduate students, career and skilled preparedness, and co-curricular offerings these kinds of as a Financial Wellness plan. They also support school and staff across campus to become far more culturally inclusive by means of their get the job done and teaching tactics.

“When I arrived to Dominican there was an total emphasis on the properly-staying of the pupils,” stated Verónica. “It felt like a whole lot of the school, these kinds of as Professor of Administration Molly Burke, were frequently incredibly fascinated and anxious about how the learners have been executing, supplying educational aid and connecting us with folks and sources.”

When pursuing her MBA, Verónica was a graduate assistant for the Economic Wellness software. The application, led by Ramiro Atristaín Carrión gives students financial literacy workshops, money advice, undergraduate internships, and volunteering chances in the neighborhood. The assistantship gave Verónica an option to extend her understanding of Monetary Literacy, mentor undergraduate learners, and get job administration techniques.

This knowledge led her to go after her present profession as a expert for better education: “As a 1st-gen scholar I generally come across it handy when institutions give instruments and methods that empower the college students, whether it is by means of experiential options like internships or graduate assistantships, that will supply experiences required for a ton of our students,” she claimed.

Verónica has generally been fully commited to mentorship and advocating for her local community.

“Growing up I had incredibly supportive instructors that always believed in my possible, so I thought that I could complete whatsoever was in my intellect,” she said. “I would also say that representation does make a difference. Ramiro was in expenditure banking, and I had under no circumstances fulfilled any individual from Latin The us that was in investment banking, so it was the initially time that I entered the room and considered that something was doable!”

“We simply cannot be what we are not able to see,” writes actor and social justice advocate Michael K. Williams in his posthumous memoir.3

Furnishing a variety of equipment and options for our learners to see over and above what they know and thrive on their endeavors, is important to aiding them be the very best-probable variation of themselves.

1Excelencia in Education: Hispanic-Serving Establishments (HSIs): 2020-2021

2National Center for Training Statistics and The White Dwelling: A Proclamation on Hispanic Heritage Establishments Week, 2022

3Williams, Michael Kenneth, and Jon Sternfeld. Scenes from My Lifetime: A Memoir. Crown, 2022.

Verónica Gutiérrez at the moment performs for a consulting agency in Chicago. She graduated credit card debt absolutely free by implementing the individual finance principles taught by Ramiro J. Atristaín-Carrión in the system. Verónica thinks in empowering persons by equipping them with the information, resources, and competencies they require to be profitable. Her future goal is to start off a money literacy plan to empower gals and other to start with-era college or university pupils.