UIC Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services (LARES)

We’re looking for volunteers for our 2024 Raices Public Policy Conference and Luncheon on Thursday, September 19th, 2024 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The Raices Conference puts community members at the center of public policy discussions in an interactive way that promotes discussions, idea sharing, and deepens learning across our five priority areas: Education, Immigration & Language Access, Healthy Equity, Economic & Business Development, and Latinx Representation As a volunteer, this is a great opportunity to gain experience and insight on public policy and more. If you’re interested in volunteering, scan the QR code in the attached flier or click here: https://lnkd.in/eqC6wcXs

LARES Executive Director Luis Duarte joins forces with HACU and Southwest Airlines to support ongoing efforts to strengthen the education pipeline for Latino students.

The LARES family would like to formally thank the Hispanic Federation for their ongoing support of our program and students! In addition to gifting the program with 80 Sony LinkBuds for students, they invited LARES to partner up with the Federation to implement the CREAR (College Readiness, Achievement and Retention) Futuros program at UIC for a second year. With the $65,000 grant provided, we continue to work with the Federation to address the persistent systemic barriers facing Latino students through peer-mentorship, leadership development, career mentorship, internship opportunities, and connections to social services. None of the would have been posspossible without the support of Roberto Valdez Jr! Thank you for recognizing the legacy of the LARES program and the importance of supporting Latino students!

LARES is excited to celebrate and welcome our future UIC Flames! Today we congratulated and celebrated Curie seniors! Thank you to the Curie Post-Secondary Team for hosting us! 🎉🎓🔥 - #FeelTheSpark #UICBound #DecisionDay #classof2024 #Chicago

Latino Unity Day - LARES Leader Jay Campos - student engagement and advocacy. Spot on comment!!

Latino Unity Day - March to the Capital

This past week, 25 student leaders from the LARES Leaders Academy traveled to Springfield, Illinois to take part in Latino Unity Day. Students not only attended sessions covering a wide gambit of issues including immigration, labor & workers’ rights, language access, health equity, business & economic development, and education, but they also had an opportunity to network with Latino elected officials and community leaders. In addition to bringing along our student leaders, the UIC Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services (LARES) program – working in conjunction with ILACHE – led a Cafecito on Latinos in Higher Education. In this session, Latino higher education champions brought to light issues facing Latinos in higher education, in addition to efforts being undertaken to boost and strengthen Latino representation. Topics covered include: an overview of ILACHE's work around Latino higher education concerns; the impact of recent Supreme Court affirmative action rulings and FAFSA modifications on Latino student enrollment; and, efforts to strengthen the higher education pipeline. The session was moderated by Dr. Mitzi Ramos and distinguished panelists included: * Dr. Leonard Ramirez, author, former LARES Director, ILACHE Board Member – Vice President of Policy * Abel Montoya, ISAC, Director of Outreach Operations * Luis Narvaez, LULAC, President * Luis Duarte, LARES Executive Director, ILACHE Board Member – Vice President of Legislative Affairs   The LARES programs would like to extend a special thank you to Illinois State Senator Celina Villanueva (12th District), Illinois State Representative Norma Hernandez (77th District), Dr. Teresa Cordova (UIC, Director of the Great Cities Institute), and Martha Gutierrez (UIC, Senior Director of Government Relations and Advocacy) for your ongoing support of student success! We would also like to thank our LARES staff – Marissa Leal, Alejandro Monzón, Jose Ortiz, and Eduardo Mendoza – for helping with this student outing. We could not have done it without you! Participating LARES Leader Academy students included those listed below. Keep an eye on these emerging change agents! Shania Cordon Jessica Vega-Patiño Joanna Arriaga Nicol Morales Gutierrez Saide Flores Eileen Rodriguez Melissa Rizo Joselyn Vasquez Stephanie Munoz Alexandra Sanchez Ivana Valencia-Cortes Karol Flores Xochilt Lorenzo Kayla Pilgrim Sofia Rodriguez Jair Alvarez Jay Campos Carlos Morales Jr. Adolfo Lopez Angel Alvarez Johnny Venegas

The UIC Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services (LARES) program would like to congratulate the class of 2024! Your hard work and resilience in achieving your academic accomplishments has definitely paid off! We wish you much success as you embark on the next chapter of your professional careers. For those of you who took part in the LARES Latino Graduate Celebración, the pictures from our event are now available for viewing and/or downloading! Please visit the link below for access to the event photos. https://lnkd.in/gN5J5QmQ Remember that LARES siempre esta contigo. If you are considering pursuing a post-baccalaureate degree, please feel free to contact Dr. Mitzi Ramos, Associate Director of Graduate Student Professional & Career Development, at [email protected] to schedule an appointment. The LARES Familia would also like to acknowledge the work of Maricela Castañeda, our very own LARES Events Administrator Associate. Despite a short turnaround period, Maricela put together yet another stellar event. Thank you for all you do for our program!

In the fall of 2011, the UIC Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services (LARES) program created ASP 084: Research Poster & Presentation Workshop for LARES Students (formerly ASP 087) to not only teach undergraduate students how to conduct Latino-focused research that could be showcased at academic & professional conferences, but to also get students thinking about postgraduate pathways. Since its inception, over 120 Latino students have presented their work at a number of academic and professional conferences. Below, you will find our latest batch of scholars! On behalf of the LARES program, we congratulate these students for their outstanding research! Despite receiving no graduation credit for their work, they immersed themselves in their projects and produced stellar research which was presented at the 2024 Illinois Latino Council on Higher Education (ILACHE) Conference held at Northern Illinois University. * Jair Alvarez, Inclusivity or Illusion: A Critical Examination of Hispanic Serving Institutions * Samuel Casas, The Relationship Between Latino Family Socialization & Mental Health Views & Practices * Anahi Cruz, Coding Ethnicity in the Criminal Justice System: How are Latinos Represented in the Data? * Karol Flores, Fostering Diversity in the Absence of Affirmative Action * Andres Lopez, Prospera en la Casa: Effects of Living Learning Communities on Hispanic & Latino Students on Campus * Xochilt Lorenzo, Education Through Storytelling: The Importance of Central American Narratives * Estephanie Alejandre Ramirez, Bridge to Success: Fueling Latino Retention Through Summer Bridge Programming If you are a undergraduate student at UIC and are interested in learning more about this course, feel free to reach out to Mitzi Ramos, Ph.D. ([email protected]). Feel free to also visit the ASP research poster archives at: https://lnkd.in/ggsPe9Cg   In addition to having our students present at the ILACHE conference, our very own LARES Executive Director Luis Duarte led the Call to Action where Senator’s Celina Villanueva and Cristina Castro discussed efforts underway to address Latino higher education issues and concerns. Our LARES Associate Director of Graduate Student Professional & Career Development Mitzi Ramos, Ph.D. was also honored with the ILACHE Leadership Award. “[This] award was created in 2001 to recognize an individual who has demonstrated years of exemplary service, commitment and leadership to Latinos in Higher Education in the State of Illinois.”