New Proyecto Center at NLU

Proyecto Center Opens

On NLU's Chicago campus there is a place that invites all students to sit, relax, watch television, check their email, play pool, study and make friends. It is the new Proyecto Center on the sixth floor right across from the elevators. "We envisioned it as a place where we can create community," says Ana Maria Soto, executive director of Latino Initiatives at NLU. "I believe that this is essential for retaining more students and making them feel like they belong here."

When the former NLU bookstore moved out of its sixth floor location, plans for the new center began. A group of NLU students chose the paint colors and the furniture, and they are now planning programs and other activities, such as offering speed workshops for job seekers and hosting inspirational leaders to meet students in an informal setting. The Office of Latino Initiatives has also established a committee that receives requests to display artwork. Every three months, a new artist is featured and the first one who displayed his work was Sam Kirk.

"I feel that NLU needed a center like this for students," says Dulce Lopez, an NLU undergraduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences who helped develop the space. "It is important to find a place on campus were we can meet others." Another undergraduate student, Yesenia Berrera, who is studying psychology, says, "We are proud of the center; it is a project we worked on together and it looks great. We hope other students will make full use of the facilities."

The center, which is staffed by students, is also used by staff and faculty members for meetings.

Latino Initiatives at NLU

Proyecto Comunidad, which is housed in the Proyecto Center, develops innovative educational partnerships with not–for–profit organizations to make higher education more accessible to the Latino community. "We continue to partner with El Valor, one of the top 10 largest Latino organizations in the United States," Soto says. "Our four MBA programs in two different locations are fulfilling a tremendous need in the Latino community," adds Soto. "The opportunity to receive a master's degree in the neighborhood can now be achieved by more and more Latinos." A new MBA program in south Chicago near the Indiana border is currently in the planning stage.

One of the challenges the Latino community faces is figuring out how to navigate the higher education landsccape, Soto notes. Since many Latino students are the first ones in their families to go to college, this is all–new territory for them and their families. Many have never filled out the financial aid forms, for example, Soto says, or know how to apply for loans and scholarships. NLU is planning to host a television segment on CANTV that will teach (step–by–step) how to fill out the forms, how to apply for scholarships and how to finance a college education.

The Office of Latino Initiatives recently received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to promote literacy and literature in the Latino community. Together with Boundless Readers, an organization that promotes literacy, NLU hosted 100 reading–club meetings as well as special events in October and November 2009. Another event to be held later in the fall will be a dramatic reading of the Mexican short stories from Sun, Stone and Shadows and a panel discussion of the short story as literature in Spanish. "We are so pleased to partner with NLU to bring this series of events to the Latino community," says Mary Hicks, executive director of Boundless Readers.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Latino enrollment has increased at NLU. "The numbers tell a remarkable story," explains Soto. "The most recent available data show a 27.8 percent increase in Latino students since 2005." For more information about NLU's Latino Initiative, email Ana Maria Soto.

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