One-on-one with new chair of the Latino Coalition

On Thursday, the Latino Coalition, the umbrella organization for 25 Latino student groups on campus, elected College junior Carelle Hernandez Ruiz as its new chair. The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with Hernandez Ruiz to discuss her plans for the upcoming year.

Daily Pennsylvanian: What are your main goals regarding the Latino community this year for the organization to tackle as a whole?

Carelle Hernandez Ruiz: This year, we’re focusing our energies on three main aspects. First, we have current students and their participation with the LC — how to reach out to more students, especially freshmen … so that they feel represented.

We also want to increase our collaborations with … alumni and graduate students. We’re just starting to draft up ways of increasing that collaboration. Our third goal would be to increase our admissions rate, and this is a continued effort — finding ways to become more creative in letting high school students know there’s a Latino community at Penn and that they’ll be welcomed.

DP: Since the individual Action Plans for Faculty Diversity and Excellence in each school were released earlier this year, what will the LC do to continue work in this area?

CHR: Right now [Latino] faculty stands at about less than 2 percent. So we want to increase that not only within the expected areas like Latino studies, but across all schools and all areas.

One of the projects we’re currently working on is establishing a mentorship between Latino faculty and Latino students, just so that they feel there’s a mentor to guide them. That is right now one of our biggest efforts. Since the diversity action plan is already established, it’d be more efficient to work within its parameters. We’re also continuing to evaluate the action plan across the schools.

DP: Have there been any changes made within the LC?

CHR: We have completely restructured our board to cater to the needs of the ever-changing community. The needs change from semester to semester so we have to make sure we adapt ourselves.

For example, we created the chair of external affairs. We currently have 18 undergraduate groups under the LC and we felt that we needed to create a position that catered specifically to the needs of the groups and their representatives. They will be in constant communication and conversation with these groups. What are the needs of the student they represent in regards to the greater Latino community?

Another big thing that we changed for this year — one of our biggest events is Festival Latino. We created a Festival Latino board, comprised of four managers, [and] our LC chair of programming and finance. That’s an exciting initiative, and the LC constituents already elected this board. They’re very enthusiastic and very excited about this new venture.

DP: What will the LC do as undocumented students continue to grow as a presence on campus?

CHR: As a student group, we don’t take sides, but we support our constituents in whatever initiatives they have. We have and will continue to support Penn for Immigrant Rights. We want to continue to make [undocumented students] feel as if Penn is a safe site for them to continue their efforts.

DP: What are your next steps?

CHR: I want the whole board to sit down with the groups and go over their mission, because some groups were started … 10 years ago, so that we can figure out how to help them achieve their goals. Now that we have this new position that can focus on that, it’s a continued effort, [but] with more resources.

It’s going to be a year of transition but hopefully it makes for a stronger LC.

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