Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Sept. 26, 2018, edition 1 / Page 8
Part of Elon University Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
I iHj SEPTEWBER 26, 2018 HISPANIC HERITAGEMI ACHIEVING THE VrefM AMERICAN I from cover Making it to Elon Students share how they drew their path to [Ion and their expriences while here Elon falls short in this as well as in the freshman population which is less than seven percent. The na tional Latino/Hispanic freshman student body which is 19.3 per cent nationwide according to the The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2016 report. Sophomore Mackenzie Martinez grew up in an upper middle-class household. As a fourth-generation Latina and third-generation college student, she knew that college was always going to be an option for her. She said that the educational resources she had growing up were due to the affluent areas in which she grew up and studied. “With my more privileged back ground, we lived in kind of the bet ter school districts,” Martinez said. “We went to the better schools, we had the newer desks, we had fancy computers, and we had newer text books, so I feel like that definitely helped me get to where I am aca demically and helped push me to bring me to Elon.” While Martinez knew she would end up in a four-year institution, Cisneros struggled to wrap her mind around the finances and the college admission process. Even when she became a teaching fellow, she did not want to get her hopes up. When she became an Odyssey scholar, a program aimed at finan cially and academically supporting students in her position, she still had her doubts of whether or not she would attend Elon. “When they [Odyssey] called me to tell me I got into the program, I thought, so how much is it? How much money did I get?” Cisneros said. Cisneros did not tell anyone that she had gotten accepted as an Od yssey scholar until she made some calls to the financial aid office, with the help of her high school princi pal. She came to find out she had received a full ride. “This was what we’ve been work ing for,” Cisneros said. “Seeing all your work pay off because it was something that I had worked for from kindergarten to 12th grade. My only goal in life was to get to college.” Cisneros and Martinez differ in their paths to Elon. Though on dif ferent sides of the socio-economic scale, their experiences as being the only student of color from high school in their upper level honors and AP classes to college are similar. One of Elons 2018-2019 in stitutional priorities is to have an unprecedented university commit ment to diversity and global en gagement. This includes objectives and initiatives for efforts focused on global engagement, such as the Latino/Hispanic working group led by Sylvia Munoz, associate director for the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Education (CREDE), and Vanessa Bravo, associate pro fessor of communications. As the report is on its final stag es before going public, Munoz said that some of the major themes of it deal with are finding more re sources for Latino/Hispanic stu dent body, more support for them and their families from the moment they begin their application until af OlEGO PINEDA | ENTERPRISE STORY COORDINATOR Senior Mirella Cisneros (left) is embraced by sophomore Mackenzie Martinez after leaving a Latinx Hispanic Union meeting Sept. 24. ter they graduate. Through research, program ming, surveys, focus groups among others the working group found that the admissions process for Latino/Hispanic students needs improvement so everyone like Cis neros parents who do not speak English can learn about the school through a bilingual website. “We don’t need a mass of stu dents to provide these services,” Munoz said. “If we have one family that needs to get all the resources that they need to be able to be at the same level as everybody” along with Brooke Barnett, associ ate provost. “It’s important to have represen tation,” Williams said. “For all peo ple, it’s a value to see your identities reflected in the classroom and the administration and in spaces where you receive services.” u Being the only minority THIS IS ABOUT CHANGING THE NARRATIVE THAT LATINOS ARE‘OTHERS’ Munoz said that once students are at Elon, orientation is also an other of the themes the working group reported about and how Lati no/Hispanic experiences differ in side the classroom from the student and faculty perspective. She said that faculty and staff at Elon that identify as Latino/Hispanic are 2.7 percent. Many of these are concen trated in the language and physical plant/environmental services de partment. Whenever Martinez walks into a classroom for the first time, she SYLVIA MUNOZ ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE CREDE From 2000 to 2015, the col lege-going rate among Hispanic high school graduates grew from 22 to 37 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Howev er, about 65 percent of those stu dents go to crowded or underfund ed community colleges. “When you look at elite schools, the actual divide or gap between white students and black and Lati no students has gotten wider in se lective schools versus enrollment in open access schools,” Williams said. When comparing Elon to peer institutions, the enrollment of freshmen Latino/Hispanic stu dents is lower. The closest figure to Elon’s numbers is Ithaca College, with an enrollment of 8.3 percent. The enrollment rate is slightly higher at Leigh University, Loyola University and the College of Wil liam and Mary, at 9.5 percent, 10.2 percent and 10.6 percent, respec tively. Rollins College and Santa Clara University figures are more representative of the national aver age, reaching 15.2 percent and 17.2 percent. “I can’t imagine what that would have felt like to see someone that looks like you to go to college,” Cis neros said. “And feel like ‘Oh, may be my aunt goes to college so she can help me and she can give me advice.’” Balancing the gap With Elon’s core valfts'" focus on diversity, ^ global engagement, it is that the school is able ? the growth of Latino/His^.; dents in the US., institu^ ’ representation of the codj and the complexity of thi| identity to provide the todi| sources for the communis: | “The working group >! to make recommendatios Elon’s policies and praclicii der to make the universiiii supportive academic, dential living enwronmenij inx/Hispanic students, fa* . and alumni,” Williams saii . Efforts such as tliea , group and the merger forB^ : and the CREDE were inj . to the growing number d; Hispanic students. Wilia these efforts are to prepaRs port these students at EIkj graduation. Munoz said that be^: sources the report of h , group mentions, it alsolj , the need to connect Yii; ; Hispanic alums and li ( the contributions of liai U.S. Martinez says thalb ] tunity and success is 1^ just representation andli a end when she graduates!: i “Not only do I wani: ] for myself and makeu proud,” Martinez said,! ' make that litde Hispaii looks on TV and neverid. who looks like her, I wai ' her proud.” The working group u ' report hope to start ii? ing their initiatives andi ' once the report is finaliai said that though Latinoli do good on paper, shei® from their conversations! ries, their experiences the best. “This is about dia® narrative that Latinos Munoz said. “ObviouslfW concentrate on the Latto* tion, but hopefully the cIb? j are going to be made raak' ^ for other populations as"® automatically takes count of how many people of color and wom en are in the room and where she ENROLLMENT OF LATINO/HISPANIC STUOENTS All stands in that sense. “I keep in mind that there are people who look at me," Martinez said. “And there are people who may have never seen another His panic woman at a really expensive private university” For Cisneros, her experiences of being the only minority in the class room growing up led her to become an education major. She is pursuing a career in teaching to help fix the inequality that exists in the educa tion system, especially for Latinos and people of color in the U.S, “There are many institutions and systems in place that kind of make it harder for people of color and for Latino students like me to be as suc cessful as other students,” Cisneros said. “We are not completely edu cated on the fact that in many ways, the system is meant to work that way; it’s meant to work against you, not for your benefit.” Randy Williams, associate vice president for campus engagement, the Latino/Hispanic, helped charge the Latino/Hispanic working group « 3 souRffisyi*»t MEGHAN KIMBE«W* 6.1% 6.4% 5.1% 5.4% 4.6% - 3-7% 2012- 2013- 2014- 2015- 2016- 2017 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 YEAR
Elon University Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 26, 2018, edition 1
8
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75