In a vibrant celebration of culture, scholarship, and community, Loyola Marymount University recently hosted a dynamic Latinx Showcase, a symposium-style event that brought together students, faculty, artists, and advocates committed to uplifting Latinx voices and created a space where the community could be for and with others.
The symposium-style showcase was held on Friday, Oct. 3, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. offering students, staff, and faculty a unique opportunity to engage with scholars and creators whose work center on issues vital to the Latinx community. Through shared research, creative expression, and personal career journeys, the symposium inspired meaningful connections and encouraged the next generation of community-facing scholars to stand tall in their purpose.
This was the first time a showcase event like this has been held for Latinx Heritage Month and was the source of a collaboration between Research, Access, and Academic Engagement (RAAE) and Chicano Latino Student Services (CLSS). The event was inspired by last year’s celebration as LMU became a Hispanic Serving Institution. “During that event, it was clear that faculty were doing a lot of meaningful work that connected their research and teaching to the community,” said Mark Houlemarde, assistant vice provost for academic administration. “The showcase built on that momentum by creating a space for those stories to be shared with students and staff. This year’s event was important because it created space for a mix of LMU students, faculty, and staff to come together. During Latinx Heritage Month, it felt especially meaningful to highlight the intellectual and professional contributions of our community.”
The showcase space invited learning and collaboration opportunities by all in the LMU community, students, staff, and faculty. And that was the core of how the idea of the showcase came together, bringing together folx who are doing really important work for and with the Latinx community. “Originally, this was a very small idea, we started with only having two sessions and we ended up having a half day conference with over 12 sessions for our community to attend,” said Claudio Rodriguez, director Chicanx Latinx Student Services. “I really enjoyed that we had students, faculty, and staff in one space collaborating and learning from each other. It was also important to provide a space to talk about the important work they are doing no matter who they are in the community, I think in many ways we are all doing work that advocates for the Latinx community.”
For Elizabeth Wimberly-Young, senior director of RAAE, the collaboration of this event was very meaningful to the work of what RAAE does. “The Latinx Heritage Showcase fits directly into RAAE’s goals of championing and showcasing student research and their fantastic collaborations with faculty and staff,” said Elizabeth Wimberly-Young, senior director, RAAE. “Partnerships across divisions at LMU – academic and student affairs, faculty, student, and staff – are invaluable, and I was so excited to see that demonstrated and come to fruition with the Latinx Heritage Showcase.”
The symposium-style showcase kicked off with a keynote session from Estela Zarate, Ph.D., dean of LMU School of Education, who shared glimpses of her formative years while transitioning into the current state of the world and its impacts on Latinx communities. Zarate closed her keynote address by inspiring students in attendance to use the day as a way to find nourishment from the LMU community. “I know all of us have different sources of hope, some of us are leaning into our faith to lead us forward, some of us are drawing on our ancestors’ histories to sustain our resilience, others are leaning into understanding modern history to prepare us to learn about the cycles of oppression and suppression. We find comfort in identifying patterns and predictions. I do all three, I rely on all sources of hope. I’d like to add one more source of inspiration and hope for you today: each other. For the next few hours, you will be learning from each other, weaving our knowledge, histories, and memories to abridge our narratives for the future.”
As the keynote concluded, attendees would spend the next two hours selecting from six sessions focused on topics such as research in action, empowerment and community advocacy, grant writing, Hispanic Serving Institutions, humanizing community through research, and intersections of identity. During the “Intersections of Identity” session, a panel of four current undergraduate students, moderated by a graduate student, shared their experiences at LMU and coming into their identities during college. Students discussed topics like knowing and learning about their own agency, the importance of asking for help as a student, reflecting on their growth, dealing with imposter syndrome, how they manage relationships with their families, and how they find their passion for what they are studying.
During the lunch session, the entire showcase came together for a session led by Kat Brown, director of mission and identity programs, and jamal epperson, assistant director for DEI initiatives, on “Mission Integration: The Praxis of Community Connections.” Following the lunch session, attendees could again choose from three session topics focusing on advocacy in action, the art of advocacy, and understanding if a doctorate is right for you. At the end of the event, the showcase concluded with a reflection section and a raffle giveaway.
For showcase organizers, the hope was students would walk away feeling a deep connection to the community, the knowledge being generated at LMU, and encouragement to keep striving towards their own goals. “For students specifically, I wanted them to feel like they have people at LMU who can support them in their college experience,” said Houlemarde. “I wanted to make access easier for them to be able to talk to faculty and staff, and for students to feel comfortable approaching people who look like them for support.” Houlemarde also shared how the hope for students was to gain “a deeper sense of knowledge being generated at LMU and how it is applied in transformational ways within communities in Los Angeles and beyond. In hearing from faculty, students saw how research can advocate for change, tell important stories, and build stronger communities.”
