New Latinos Unidos club stands united
Latinos Unidos members proudly display their T-shirts during the first annual heritage 5K run along the Lansing River Trail. (Photo courtesy of Felipe Lopez Sustaita.)
Sarah Spohn
Staff Writer
Living up to its name, Latinos Unidos (or Latinos United) helps to create a family-feel on LCC campus.
This new club originally started out as the Latino Student Alliance, teaming up with the LUCERO Program.
LUCERO means “morning star,” “evening star,” “bright star” or “brilliance.” The pro-gram establishes just that through a positive connection for Latino students.
Revitalizing and renaming the club led to the Latinos Unidos’ strong presence on campus and full exposure in the surrounding community.
Having graduated from the LUCERO program, the club’s current co-adviser, Santos Gutierrez, knows first-hand the importance of feeling a part of something.
“We have four principles,” Gutierrez said. “We work toward leadership, cultural awareness, academics for students and community service.”
Latinos Unidos celebrates Hispanic Heri-tage Month and cultural shows on campus.
It recently organized the first annual heritage 5K run along the Lansing River Trail. This event took place Oct. 7 and helped raise money for scholarships alongside the LUCERO program.
“We’re all about community and sup-porting each other as students more than our race,” Gutierrez said.
Latinos Unidos focuses on a family-oriented culture, but it welcomes all races, ethnicities, genders and students of all sorts.
“Anyone can join, even if they’re not Latino,” Gutierrez said. “We welcome that.”
Latinos Unidos aims to make students’ transition from high school to college a fun and easy one, according to Gutierrez.
Considering many students are the first of their families to attend college, giving them a strong support base of staff and students is a primary goal of Latinos Unidos.
Meetings are held every other Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Cesar Chavez in Gannon Building room 262.
Interested students can contact Gutierrez at guties@lcc.edu or club chairpersons Stephanie Pena or Karmen Carranza.
Better yet, just stop by the Cesar Chavez Room during the bi-weekly meeting.
Category: Other Featured
