By: Verónica Gutiérrez, MBA’22, Dominican College, River Forest IL and Marcela Reales Visbal, Action Director for Title V, Part B – Marketing Publish-Baccalaureate Options for Hispanic Americans, Dominican College, River Forest IL
“I experienced never heard of the time period HSI right until I came to Dominican University”, stated Verónica Gutiérrez, a very first-era Latina who grew up in one of Chicago’s northwestern suburbs and just lately graduated with her Master’s in Business enterprise Administration from Dominican.
Dominican University is a single of 30 Hispanic Serving Institutions in Illinois, and 1 of 15 that delivers graduate applications.1 When most HSIs are concentrated in the U.S. Southwest, Puerto Rico, and New York, Dominican proudly serves the midwestern Latine neighborhood. The university is regarded as Chicago’s Leading Catholic HSI.
Like Verónica, a lot of college students at Dominican are to start with-generation faculty pupils and from traditionally marginalized communities in the Chicago metropolitan location. With Latine pupils accounting for 20% of school undergraduates in the United States, it’s vital to be intentional about serving this subset of the inhabitants.2
How? By constructing on students’ assets and offering them instruments and assets that will assist them realize success.
Due to the fact the fall of 2017 Dominican University has been awarded Title V and Title III grants aimed at increasing Latine and lower-income college student success. These assets increase and enhance educational choices, educational support providers for undergraduate and graduate students, career and expert preparedness, and co-curricular offerings this kind of as a Economic Wellness plan. They also assistance school and workers throughout campus to develop into more culturally inclusive via their get the job done and educating methods.
“When I came to Dominican there was an total concentration on the properly-being of the learners,” mentioned Verónica. “It felt like a ton of the school, these types of as Professor of Administration Molly Burke, were being normally extremely intrigued and anxious about how the learners ended up carrying out, presenting tutorial guidance and connecting us with men and women and means.”
Even though pursuing her MBA, Verónica was a graduate assistant for the Financial Wellness method. The software, led by Ramiro Atristaín Carrión gives learners money literacy workshops, monetary steering, undergraduate internships, and volunteering opportunities in the group. The assistantship gave Verónica an option to expand her awareness of Economical Literacy, mentor undergraduate students, and get job administration techniques.
This knowledge led her to pursue her existing job as a expert for higher instruction: “As a very first-gen scholar I constantly obtain it valuable when establishments give applications and resources that empower the pupils, no matter if it is by experiential prospects like internships or graduate assistantships, that will supply encounters necessary for a ton of our learners,” she reported.
Verónica has always been dedicated to mentorship and advocating for her local community.
“Growing up I experienced pretty supportive instructors that normally believed in my opportunity, so I considered that I could accomplish whatever was in my intellect,” she reported. “I would also say that illustration does make a difference. Ramiro was in investment decision banking, and I had never ever satisfied any individual from Latin The usa that was in expense banking, so it was the to start with time that I entered the space and thought that everything was probable!”
“We are unable to be what we can’t see,” writes actor and social justice advocate Michael K. Williams in his posthumous memoir.3
Providing a range of equipment and alternatives for our learners to see further than what they know and thrive on their endeavors, is crucial to helping them be the best-possible model of themselves.
1Excelencia in Schooling: Hispanic-Serving Establishments (HSIs): 2020-2021
2National Middle for Training Statistics and The White House: A Proclamation on Hispanic Heritage Institutions 7 days, 2022
3Williams, Michael Kenneth, and Jon Sternfeld. Scenes from My Lifetime: A Memoir. Crown, 2022.
Verónica Gutiérrez at present works for a consulting agency in Chicago. She graduated personal debt no cost by implementing the personalized finance concepts taught by Ramiro J. Atristaín-Carrión in the application. Verónica thinks in empowering persons by equipping them with the expertise, resources, and skills they need to be successful. Her long term goal is to begin a fiscal literacy method to empower females and other very first-technology college students.
