Photo: Miranda Fedor
The Hispanic/Latinx Task Force, an initiative started in the spring 2018 semester, held its first meeting Thursday, Oct. 11 at 3:30 p.m. in Hoover 110. Within the meeting, students, faculty and staff discussed how Elizabethtown College can better support and assist students who identify as Hispanic or Latinx, as well as promoting diversity and inclusion among the campus community.
The Hispanic/Latinx Task Force initiative was officially started in the spring 2018 semester, when assistant professor of PK-12 stem education Dr. Peter Licona, associate professor of electrical engineering Dr. Tomas Estrada and associate professor of music education Dr. Kevin Shorner-Johnson came together to write a grant proposal that dealt specifically with the support and continued recruitment of students who identify with a Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity.
“The grants seeks to pursue both the questions of (1) how can we bring people together to welcome, empower, and affirm Hispanic/Latinx populations and (2) how can we, at Elizabethtown College, improve our recruitment and support of students who identify as Hispanic/Latinx,” Shorner-Johnson said in an email interview.
Since the acceptance of their grant proposal in May, Licona, Estrada and Shorner-Johnson gathered with other faculty and staff to open up the discussion and listen to suggestions of how they could improve the recruitment and support of students who identify as Hispanic/Latinx.
“I believe the students benefitted from participation in the discussion by being able to relate the personal experiences at Etown,” Licona said in an email interview. “Students were also able to share their ideas regarding how Etown can improve its efforts at recruiting and retaining Latina/o students.”
Upon moving forward and continuing to develop the Hispanic/Latinx Task Force, Licona, Estrada and Shorner-Johnson stress the importance and criticality of student input and engagement throughout every step of this initiative.
“I hope that through this work, we (students, faculty, and staff) can work together to build new models for how we welcome and empower diverse communities,” Shorner-Johnson said. “By working together on this project, we can open the doors of higher education further and bring together our communities.”
In this upcoming spring semester, Licona, Estrada and Shorner-Johnson have multiple Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workshops planned for current Hispanic/Latinx students to connect with current Etown students and faculty. They also have plans in place to welcome a concert from the Puerto Rican Bomba y Plena group Los Pleneros de la 21 for a day of music, food, cultural activities and information about the College for regional Hispanic/Latinx students.
Overall, Licona, Estrada and Shorner-Johnson stress the importance of student, as well as faculty and staff, engagement and input throughout the development of the Hispanic/Latinx Task Force.
“[As a Task Force,] we continue to welcome all student input and engagement as we continue our work,” Shorner-Johnson said.
