Dominican University: Serving Latine Students in the Midwest
By: Verónica Gutiérrez, MBA’22, Dominican University, River Forest IL and Marcela Reales Visbal, Exercise Director for Title V, Aspect B – Advertising Post-Baccalaureate Prospects for Hispanic Us citizens, Dominican University, River Forest IL
“I had by no means listened to of the phrase HSI right until I arrived to Dominican University”, reported Verónica Gutiérrez, a initially-technology Latina who grew up in a single of Chicago’s northwestern suburbs and recently graduated with her Master’s in Enterprise Administration from Dominican.
Dominican College is one particular of 30 Hispanic Serving Institutions in Illinois, and one of 15 that features graduate packages.1 Whilst most HSIs are concentrated in the U.S. Southwest, Puerto Rico, and New York, Dominican proudly serves the midwestern Latine community. The university is thought of Chicago’s Leading Catholic HSI.
Like Verónica, many pupils at Dominican are first-generation college college students and from traditionally marginalized communities in the Chicago metropolitan space. With Latine students accounting for 20% of university undergraduates in the United States, it is essential to be intentional about serving this subset of the population.2
How? By developing on students’ belongings and supplying them resources and assets that will help them do well.
Due to the fact the fall of 2017 Dominican College has been awarded Title V and Title III grants aimed at growing Latine and lower-cash flow college student results. These resources increase and boost educational offerings, academic assistance products and services for undergraduate and graduate pupils, profession and experienced preparedness, and co-curricular offerings this sort of as a Economic Wellness software. They also guidance faculty and workers throughout campus to develop into extra culturally inclusive by way of their operate and training methods.
“When I arrived to Dominican there was an total emphasis on the effectively-remaining of the pupils,” stated Verónica. “It felt like a great deal of the faculty, this kind of as Professor of Administration Molly Burke, were normally pretty intrigued and anxious about how the college students ended up undertaking, supplying educational aid and connecting us with people today and sources.”
When pursuing her MBA, Verónica was a graduate assistant for the Money Wellness system. The system, led by Ramiro Atristaín Carrión gives pupils financial literacy workshops, monetary steerage, undergraduate internships, and volunteering alternatives in the local community. The assistantship gave Verónica an prospect to develop her awareness of Financial Literacy, mentor undergraduate college students, and get venture management techniques.
This practical experience led her to pursue her current job as a marketing consultant for higher training: “As a to start with-gen college student I usually discover it handy when establishments give equipment and means that empower the pupils, regardless of whether it’s through experiential opportunities like internships or graduate assistantships, that will provide experiences desired for a great deal of our students,” she said.
Verónica has usually been committed to mentorship and advocating for her group.
“Growing up I experienced really supportive instructors that normally considered in my potential, so I believed that I could execute regardless of what was in my brain,” she claimed. “I would also say that illustration does make any difference. Ramiro was in expenditure banking, and I experienced never satisfied anyone from Latin The us that was in investment banking, so it was the first time that I entered the space and believed that something was doable!”
“We can’t be what we are unable to see,” writes actor and social justice advocate Michael K. Williams in his posthumous memoir.3
Giving a wide variety of equipment and prospects for our college students to see beyond what they know and triumph on their endeavors, is critical to aiding them be the ideal-doable version of by themselves.
1Excelencia in Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs): 2020-2021
2National Center for Training Stats and The White Residence: A Proclamation on Hispanic Heritage Institutions Week, 2022
3Williams, Michael Kenneth, and Jon Sternfeld. Scenes from My Everyday living: A Memoir. Crown, 2022.
Verónica Gutiérrez now functions for a consulting agency in Chicago. She graduated credit card debt totally free by implementing the private finance concepts taught by Ramiro J. Atristaín-Carrión in the method. Verónica believes in empowering persons by equipping them with the knowledge, tools, and capabilities they have to have to be prosperous. Her long run objective is to start a fiscal literacy program to empower ladies and other to start with-generation higher education students.