We all have a friend or know someone who is part of a club here at Salt Lake Community College. While SLCC has many clubs, the Hispanic Latino Club (HLC) stands out the most to me. This is because the club has members from many different backgrounds.
According to HLC advisor Ana Archuleta, the main purpose of the Hispanic Latino Club is to provide leadership skills to its members, and also to get them involved in the community.
One of the things they have done for the community is the purchasing of turkeys for low-income families in the west side central city area for the last two years.
Archuleta said her job is to guide them [club members] on how to handle different situations and teach them leadership skills.
With the state of the current economy and being a full time student, it’s hard to find a job that works around one’s schedule. However, the Hispanic Latino Club offers job opportunities to its members.
“During the census we had a lot of students hired, working at the call center,” Archuleta said. “I’ll get jobs in where they just want bilingual people, and that is really effective, so I’ll pass those on.”
The club’s connection with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce can be really helpful to club members. Archuleta said they’ve had students walk out of conventions with jobs.
As the advisor of the Hispanic Latino Club, Archuleta has an expectation from the club and its members.
“Make their education top priority,” she said. “To me, that’s the most important, and that they pass all their classes. And move on to a higher college if that is what they want.”
Archuleta believes that she wouldn’t be in the place she is right now if it wasn’t for the help that she received from others and this is the reason she is always helping students.
“My philosophy is to pay it forward,” Archuleta said.
The purposes of the meetings are for members to bond with other students, help each other out, learn how to work with each other and learn to think for themselves. HLC members are presented with these kinds of situations at every meeting. For example, whether a person wants to run a project and others don’t or simply because someone is having trouble with a class and wants help from other students.
The HLC meetings are every Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. in the Student Center at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus. Everyone is welcome to attend and join the club – and no, you don’t have to be Hispanic or Latino to be part of the club.