The Office of Intercultural Engagement | Supporting Latinx Students at UNCG

Supporting Latinx Students at UNCG

At a Glance: Latine and Hispanics at UNC-G

16.3% Latino/a/x and Hispanic Undergraduate students

70+ Latino/a/x and Hispanic faculty and staff

7 student organizations (cultural and professional)

1 community/comunidad

UNCG OIE Herencia is a Latine/Hispanic Student Collective within the Office of Intercultural Engagement. The purpose of Herencia is to connect, engage & learn more about la (tu) herencia Latina/Hispana (Latine/Hispanic heritage) at UNCG and beyond.

We do this work in a variety of different ways. We build community through intentional collaborations with campus partners and other Latine/Hispanic students, faculty, staff, and alumni initiatives. We provide cultural programming through OIE and one-to-one chats with Latine/Hispanic students who want to talk about their Latinidad & academics, community engagement, leadership, mental health, or a little bit of everything! We provide resources within the OIE and also refer students to other campus resources as we work together for each of our student’s success-éxito.

Read below ways to stay connected and engaged with Herencia: Latine/Hispanic Student Collective!

Student Affairs

The Division of Student Affairs support for Latine/Hispanic Students is composed of different initiatives happening within the OIE Herencia Latine Student Collective and other departments on campus. 

OIE Herencia Offerings:There are many ways you can stay engaged and connected to fit your schedule! You may also want to join our newsletter and GroupMe to stay current on future events. You can also schedule a one-one meeting to learn about and connect with other resources on campus around student clubs, leadership, volunteering, and other things.  

Join Newsletter & Groupme!  Build community, stay connected and up to date with all that’s happening at UNCG for Latine/Hispanic and resources in general!

Schedule a meeting with Marisa Lets chat! Do you have questions about student clubs, leadership, community engagement, mental health? Or do you want to learn a little bit of everything? Don’t hesitate and reach out today and learn about resources within OIE Herencia and about other campus resources! 

Follow us on social media! 

 Mi Herencia Ambassador? Apply here. 

We are recruiting students Latine/Hispanic Heritage to serve as Mi Herencia Ambassadors in collaboration with Languages, Literatures and Cultures, the Office of Intercultural Engagement, and Admissions. Ambassadors can either select to support community engagement opportunities and/or assist with OIE Herencia programming for UNCG. 

Mi Herencia Ambassadors (Community Engagement) – You will participate in coordinated visits  high schools & community organizations. Ambassadors will also participate in on-campus events that may include but are not limited to Bilingual Group Tour Visits, Friday Bilingual Tours, Open House & Admitted Spartans Day Spanish Sessions, SOAR Spanish sessions, CHANCE college experience summer program, etc. Mi Herencia Ambassadors will create a series of sessions/workshops using different modes to express their learning through Spanish courses at UNCG and their experience as college students. Ambassadors will work with the Office of Intercultural Engagement to develop programming and materials. The session/activities will vary depending on the event and time restrictions but may include student panels, poetry, storytelling circles, and dialogue. *preference given to students who are a Spanish Major, minor or are currently enrolled in Spanish courses but other applications.*

Mi Herencia Ambassadors (OIE Herencia Support) – You will help with various activities that will happen throughout the year including Latine/Hispanic Heritage Month, overall leadership student organization support, Si se pudo graduation event, 1-1 help with students, marketing and social media. New initiatives are developing in which you will also be invited to participate.

Benefits: 

Community Engagement with the OIE Herencia & Partners

UNCG CHANCE: Serving our comunidad through college access

UNCG CHANCE (Campamento Hispano Abriendo Nuestro Camino a la Educacion), an award-winning grassroots  summer college access program for Latinx high school rising seniors across North Carolina. CHANCE began in 2017 with a group of faculty, staff, and students who wanted to encourage Latinx students to pursue college education. The annual program brings students to UNCG’s campus to take mock classes, learn from speakers, visit campus departments and stakeholders, participate in a career fair, engage with Admissions and Financial Aid staff, and much more. The primary collaborators of this program are the Division of Student Affairs, Enrollment Management, and University Libraries and our amazing students! Learn more about CHANCE below. 

UNCG CHANCE is a 4-day summer program for Latinx rising high school seniors. During their time on campus, students will participate in college preparation and leadership skills development. These experiences include:

Participants engage with university professors, students, and staff to develop a peer/professional network forging positive, healthy mentorship connections focused on academic success and personal growth. This program encourages Latinx students to attend college by increasing their awareness of higher education and showing that it is well within their reach.

Gus Peña serves as director of the program.  For information on applying for the camp as a camper (high school student) click here. Applications for mentors/coordinators have closed. 

Follow CHANCE on social media: Instagram – Facebook

See past stories about CHANCE: 

Mental Health

Latinx Connections Support Group – This weekly discussion group is open to all Latin-identified UNCG students, regardless of identities, nationality, or racial/ethnic background. A supportive  atmosphere to engage in fun activities, interactions  and conversations. A willingness to engage and honor group members’ privacy are the only requirements to attend.

If you would like to also pursue counseling and psychological services with someone who identifies as Latine/Hispanic, please contact 336.334.5340 and let them know you would prefer someone who is Latine or speaks Spanish and they will attempt to match you with their counselors! 

Student Organizations:

At UNCG, we have seven Latine student organizations through CAP, which are supported partly by the Intercultural Leadership Council. Today these spaces have grown tremendously and range from learning to dance to Latinx Leadership and Professionalism. Read more below and belong to a student organization! 

See below a description of organizations and how to stay involved:

SALSA – UNC Greensboro Spanish American Latinx Student Association. Dedicated to empowering and bringing awareness to issues/culture in our Latinx community.

ALPFA – To empower and develop Latinos as leaders of character for the nation, in every sector of the global economy.

RITMO LATINO –  UNCG’s Latin Dance Team. Committed to enhancing the UNCG community of the Latin culture through dance.

CORAZON FOLKLORICO – UNCG organization spreading Hispanic & Latino culture in the community with traditional dances.

Sororities/Fraternities

Chi Upsilon Sigma – We the sisters of the Beta Beta chapter of Chi Upsilon Sigma National Latin Sorority, Inc. were founded to educate, elevate, and empower all women.

Lambda Theta Alpha – The purpose of Lambda Theta Alpha shall be to provide a sisterhood based on unity, love and respect in an effort to foster the development of strong leaders who will then provide and practice political, social and cultural activities.

Lamdas Theta Phi – Delta Omicron Chapter. Latino by Tradition not by Definition. ΛΘΦ | UNCG | “Chivalry Above Self”

The mission of Lambda Theta Phi is to empower the Latin male through scholarship, Brotherhood, opportunity and protection of identity and equality.

Faculty/Staff 

Alianza is UNC Greensboro’s faculty and staff organization for Latinx and Hispanic issues. Since 2013, UNC Greensboro’s Alianza has been a gathering point for university employees who are interested in collaborating around issues that impact Hispanic/Latino staff, initiatives that enhance activity on campus related to the Hispanic/Latino cultures and communities – and they also serve as a network to support prospect and enrolled students.

Other Student Affairs Departments:

Research & Academics:

There are other opportunities to connect academically through research, like Caminos Lab or a Heritage Spanish Language course. 

Spanish Heritage Language Program: The Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures offers a Spanish Heritage Language Program with specially-designed courses for students who have learned Spanish at home or in a Spanish-speaking community.

Whether you are a heritage student seeking to declare a minor or major in Spanish, expand your knowledge of the Spanish-speaking linguistic and cultural heritages across the globe, increase your confidence in your Spanish skills, or build linguistic and cultural connections with the Latino community of UNCG or greater Greensboro, our Spanish heritage language courses offer multiple ways to engage with Spanish.

Caminos Lab: We work to improve psychological and educational outcomes for youth of color. The CAMINOS Lab attempts to identify individual, familial, and cultural processes that place minoritized youth at risk for maladaptive psychological and educational outcomes, with a focus on immigrant and Latinx populations. We also seek to understand the individual, familial, and cultural processes that serve to promote positive development and mitigate risk. The lab’s research questions are grounded in cultural models of child development (e.g., Integrative Model; García Coll et al., 1996) and tenets of developmental psychopathology (Sroufe & Rutter, 1984). The integration of these perspectives can deepen our understanding of risk and resilience processes in Latinx and other families of color to inform how best to deliver community-based prevention and intervention programs that address the mental health and cultural needs of these communities. Our work broadly focuses on cultural values, discrimination, ethnic-racial socialization, and interventions in Latinx and other minoritized communities.

BILINGUALTEK: An Integrated Science-Language Instructional Approach For Latino Preschoolers (2021-2025) This project addresses the need to minimize differences in science learning opportunities faced by low-income Latino preschoolers through the development and assessment of Bilingualtek (BT). BT is a multimedia-supported, integrated science-language instructional approach focused on engaging science experiences, enriched by three innovative, mutually supporting instructional practices: scaffolded science talk, culturally and linguistically responsive science shared readings, and e-books with multimedia supports for science and dual language learning in preschool.

The project’s long-term objective is to foster academic achievement in Latino DLLs by developing synergetic science-language instructional approaches that build on the cultural and linguistic resources these children bring to their educational experiences in early childhood classrooms.

Researchers:

McNair Scholars – The UNCG-McNair Scholars Program (UNCG-McNair) is a federal TRiO program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Designed to prepare undergraduate students for the pursuit of a Ph.D., UNCG-McNair provides 25 UNCG undergraduate students with opportunities to complete research with faculty mentors, attend the UNCG-McNair Summer Research Institute, explore graduate school options, and prepare for graduate-level studies. Ultimately, the goal of UNCG-McNair – and all Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Programs – is to diversify faculty demographics across the nation by providing experience and training to students typically under-represented in the academy.

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