Dominican University: Serving Latine Students in the Midwest

By: Verónica Gutiérrez, MBA’22, Dominican College, River Forest IL and Marcela Reales Visbal, Action Director for Title V, Aspect B – Endorsing Post-Baccalaureate Prospects for Hispanic Us citizens, Dominican University, River Forest IL

“I had never ever read of the term HSI until eventually I came to Dominican University”, claimed Verónica Gutiérrez, a to start with-generation Latina who grew up in a person of Chicago’s northwestern suburbs and a short while ago graduated with her Master’s in Organization Administration from Dominican.

Dominican College is one particular of 30 Hispanic Serving Establishments in Illinois, and one particular of 15 that presents graduate courses.¹ When most HSIs are concentrated in the U.S. Southwest, Puerto Rico, and New York, Dominican proudly serves the midwestern Latine neighborhood. The school is deemed Chicago’s Premier Catholic HSI.

Like Verónica, many students at Dominican are initial-generation university pupils and from historically marginalized communities in the Chicago metropolitan space. With Latine students accounting for 20% of university undergraduates in the United States, it is critical to be intentional about serving this subset of the populace.²

How? By making on students’ belongings and providing them equipment and means that will help them triumph.

Considering that the fall of 2017 Dominican College has been awarded Title V and Title III grants aimed at raising Latine and very low-profits student good results. These resources develop and improve academic offerings, educational aid providers for undergraduate and graduate college students, job and expert preparedness, and co-curricular offerings this sort of as a Economical Wellness plan. They also aid college and employees throughout campus to turn into extra culturally inclusive by their function and teaching procedures.

“When I arrived to Dominican there was an general emphasis on the very well-getting of the college students,” reported Verónica. “It felt like a whole lot of the school, this sort of as Professor of Management Molly Burke, were normally quite intrigued and concerned about how the college students were being undertaking, supplying educational assist and connecting us with men and women and assets.”

Though pursuing her MBA, Verónica was a graduate assistant for the Fiscal Wellness program. The plan, led by Ramiro Atristaín Carrión delivers learners economic literacy workshops, monetary steerage, undergraduate internships, and volunteering opportunities in the local community. The assistantship gave Verónica an option to grow her information of Financial Literacy, mentor undergraduate pupils, and obtain job management techniques.

This experience led her to go after her recent career as a consultant for greater training: “As a 1st-gen pupil I usually discover it useful when institutions give equipment and resources that empower the learners, whether it is via experiential options like internships or graduate assistantships, that will provide activities necessary for a good deal of our pupils,” she claimed.

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

“Growing up I experienced pretty supportive lecturers that often believed in my potential, so I believed that I could achieve what ever was in my thoughts,” she reported. “I would also say that illustration does make any difference. Ramiro was in expenditure banking, and I had by no means fulfilled any person from Latin The usa that was in financial investment banking, so it was the first time that I entered the space and believed that anything was doable!”

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

Giving a variety of tools and possibilities for our learners to see outside of what they know and be successful on their endeavors, is vital to aiding them be the most effective-probable version of themselves.

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

²Nationwide Middle for Instruction Statistics and The White Home: A Proclamation on Hispanic Heritage Establishments Week, 2022

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

Verónica Gutiérrez now performs for a consulting firm in Chicago. She graduated debt free by applying the individual finance ideas taught by Ramiro J. Atristaín-Carrión in the program. Verónica believes in empowering men and women by equipping them with the awareness, equipment, and expertise they want to be effective. Her future purpose is to get started a monetary literacy plan to empower women and other 1st-technology faculty pupils.