Photo Essay

 Damaris Paulino 

Professor Rolfes

 

WRD 110 

 

23 September 2021

  

                        Student Minority Resources 

 

Starting College is a big transition from what students are used to during high school. One of the changes is moving to a new unknown space. Finding yourself in a large new campus such as at the University of Kentucky can be hard. However, when you are part of a minority this adds an extra level of difficulty, because even though you are part of the large student body, your background and experiences are different. This can create a lack of empathy or relativeness which can cause minority students to struggle in finding a sense of belonging and this can impact their performance on academics since they would be under stress, more likely would feel that they do not fit in. It’s important for students to find a community they belong to or want to participate in so they can be successful everyday. 

As mentioned before transitioning to college can be difficult, especially for minorities like the African American, Latino, Asian, and other communities, therefore it’s important to find resources for these students to have support. One particular resource at the University of Kentucky is the Martin Luther King Cultural center. It is located on the second floor of the Gatton Student Center Building, shown in figure 1. The cultural center was founded in 1987, in the original student center by African American and Latino students. As freshmen, students might not know much information about the purpose and people found at some of these resources such as the cultural center

                                                             FIGURE 1 

 

One of the leaders at the cultural center, Ruth Gonzalez, is the Latino student Community Specialist. In an interview with her I asked some questions in my intent to find out more about the purpose of this center. She explained to me that the purpose of the cultural center is to serve and have resources for underrepresented students. 

This cultural center helps all populations, especially minorities. The Cultural Center’s mission focuses on creating community, and helping students find a place for them to be successful everyday. It emphasizes family,friends,professional help, and connections. They “use the Martin Luther King philosophy”. The center wants to provide a physical space where students can do their homework and get to meet people, other cultural programs, and hold events for students to have an opportunity to get involved. The next question she responded was, “Do you think UK does enough to help Latino Students?”, she responded by stating “Historically UK has not[,]”  because the Latino community was excluded. It’s “the wildcat community” that has made it possible for all those resources to be created because they care about the community. The rest of the interview was focused on her role and the importance of the cultural center. Ms.Gonzalez thinks that that having resources for minorities on campus is important because, we have been excluded for a long time, and our contributions on anything matter.It’s also important because our community transcends other communities, “we are global people” from different countries so we must have the help and space to network and find ourselves. She also shared that she studied here at UK and stayed to work. Her position, (Latino community specialist) did not exist when she was a student here, but her and others fought for this position to be created because it’s important to have. She enjoys working with minority students and stayed working on campus after graduating because she wanted to give back to the Martin Luther King center, school, and her community. During the interview she said she lacked these type of resources so she’s glad that there’s more of them for students to have them since their freshman year. In her opinion there’s still a lot of work left to do to better help the community. Something that she said stood out, “These students can/could be my future colleagues.” This just shows how much she believes in students and her passion to work with them. It’s important for students to have people who look like them and share their background like Ms.Gonzalez and others  in important positions at school. It’s even more important when it’s about having access to the right resources and being able to relate to them fully so there’s no space to feel uncomfortable in any way and it’s help free of judgement. Any resource for students needs a dedicated staff.

The Martin Luther King Cultural center has representative, and passionate staff. This is crucial to student’s safety and success on campus as shown in figure 2. 

FIGURE 2 

 

As mentioned by Ms.Gonzalez, the cultural center offers programs designed for minorities, something provided through this, is the student organizations, such as the Latino Student Union. The LSU is a student-led organization and it has been around for 7 years only. It was founded in 2014 by students. Ms.Ruth Gonzalez was one of the students that helped start this union which is surprising and awesome. In this space, an an opportunity for students to express themselves and talk about their experiences and struggles by having empathy and supporting each other. This is a place in which students can become more informed and make new connections with people that may be going through the same situation and that are kind, respectful, and friendly. This union being led by students makes it special because it shows students from this background that they can do the same and that they are able to be leaders in helping people in their situation. Most importantly having people from their same age and who are going through the same college process as leaders really aids them to be understood and provided with advice on how to resolve or navigate adversities from experienced individual. In the below photo we can see the leader talking to students during the first meeting of. The 2021–2022 school year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                FIGURE 3

The union’s meetings take place inside the Martin Luther King center found in the second floor of the Gatton student center. These meetings are in person, and the resources are very accessible on campus. Another way you can access these, is by searching or looking up “University of Kentucky MLK Center.” There you will find the different cultural groups and organizations sites that have more information about the center’s mission, services, dates, and locations of events. You can also find the different director’s contact informations which is helpful if students ever need help on getting involved with the center,  the directors and coordinators would kindly help. It’s important to note these can be found on the internet also because sometimes we may have a busy schedule but it’s still relevant to find and investigate the help needed. 

Changing from one thing known to another, for example high school to college demands a big need for adjustment. This may be difficult to accomplish for all students but it’s even more complex for minority students because they face more challenges like fang a community that they can relate to in a deep level. Resources like the Martin Luther King Center make it easier for minority students to be able to adjust faster by providing them with a space to find a community network and creating opportunities to get involved which is encouraged for student success. The staff is dedicated and representative of the different minority groups which helps students. See themselves in important job roles. The MLK Center and. Latino Student union both help students be successful and connect not just during the events are happening, it helps them be successful everyday. As minority and Latino students we have to work together along the MLK center and Latino resources to better help and make our community better.