Skyline College hosted several events to expand outreach to its Latinx students during Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs yearly from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.   

These events included a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration kickoff on Sept. 15, as well as “Dia De La Comunidad” and “Dia De La Mission,” put together by the Associated Students of Skyline College (ASSC).

More than 30% of Skyline College’s enrolled students identified as Hispanic during the Fall 2021 semester, according to a fact sheet provided by Skyline College.

“The main purpose of this event was to inform our Latino and Latina students that we, as Skyline employees… [are] coming together to build a network, to build this community, to build this comunidad,” said Martin Marquez, the DREAM Center’s program services coordinator.

“[These programs serve] to remind our people that our folks are here and there needs to be more visibility and more representation, but taking that further and saying how can we model this network of professionals so that we can model this for our own students and they can build their own community, and we can be that model that they look at and say ‘man there’s so many Latino and Latina professionals that get together… now it’s our turn’.”

Marquez said he hopes the Comunidad program will expand to become a district-wide chapter, including Cañada College and College of San Mateo as the program matures.

During the closing event, which took place on Oct. 13, students spoke about what they felt the district and college could do to serve their community better. Students explained that they thought more advertising for these events, authentic Hispanic food “that felt like home” served on campus, and study abroad programs in Latin America could be expanded to embrace the Hispanic student population further.

Giovanna Souza, a Skyline College freshman of Brazilian descent, also explained that she felt the school could better embrace Brazilian American students and be more inclusive of all Latin American cultures with regards to events. “Bring your own food events [or] events surrounding food would be well-attended,” Souza said.