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Mira Swartz

Students eat food during the last Latino Student Association meeting on May 26.

Junior Jessica Lopez has attended Latino Student Association meetings throughout the year, but only at the most recent meeting did 40 other students fill the seats in C350 around her.

Lopez said the strong attendance at the May 26 Latino Student Association (LSA) meeting, and the attitudes of the attendees, showed her the positive energy the group brings.

“It’s nice seeing there’s a lot of people showing up,” Lopez said. You can really tell people are having a good time. It was a great year.”

LSA adviser Daniel Perez said he intended for the beginning of the meeting to spark conversation and reflection on the year. He asked students what they learned over the year and what they look forward to in the summer.

“I asked them, how many of you are happy to have survived this year? All hands went up. For them just to see each other’s hands in the air, that was powerful,” Perez said.

Sophomore Sherry Palacios said she most enjoyed the video clip of pictures taken throughout the year presented later in the meeting, especially for the amusement it provided.

“(I enjoyed) the slide show because I didn’t even know they were taking pictures. I was mainly just laughing. I found it funny,” Palacios said.

On a more serious note, Perez said he asked students what they liked about the LSA throughout the year and what they would like to see changed for next year.

Perez said students praised improved attendance and organization of the group compared to past years, though they would like to have gone more in-depth on topics like family issues.

An improvement Perez said he would like to see in the future is a decrease in distractions during meetings and more student ownership of the group.

“A personal improvement would be (decreasing) the amount of phones and electronics, minimizing distractions, increasing group time,” Perez said.

Perez said he plans to form various committees — such as fundraising and PR — next year in order to have more student leadership in the group. His favorite part of the year was watching students take charge over the Cinco de Mayo celebration, and he said he hopes to see more of that next year.

“The Cinco de Mayo celebration was a huge highlight for me, particularly because of the ownership students took. That was really wonderful to see,” Perez said.   

For Junior Antonio Cruz, the most recent LSA meeting was his first and last this year. He said he’s strongly considering joining next year because of the group’s community aspect.

 “You share your opinions with other people and you get to know different people,” Cruz said.