Engaging with Our Latinx Community

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Celebrated September 15 - October 15, National Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to explore the unique ways to engage with the Latinx community at Booth and beyond.

  • By FT Admissions
  • October 02, 2020
  • Community

You’ll often hear MBA programs boast about their geographic locations as a benefit to your enrollment. We certainly love our “sweet home, Chicago” for its museums, Lakefront trail, dining scene, and more, but we also appreciate the blend of racial and ethnic backgrounds that make up the fabric of our city. In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we want to help you explore the resources available to Latinx students, as well as the ways in which all Booth students can learn more and celebrate the diverse cultures that comprise this heritage. We’ll start hyperlocal by familiarizing you with Booth-specific resources and work our way to the offerings across the city we call home.

Engaging through partnerships and Booth resources

In diversity recruitment, relationship building is key. Chicago Booth is closely affiliated with several national organizations—including multiple that support Hispanic/Latinx students—that work to improve the diversity of leaders in the business world. These third party partnerships allow Booth to engage with prospective students at the early stages of their MBA path. A few of our partnerships include: 

  • Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), a national nonprofit organization that has made groundbreaking progress to correct the dramatic underrepresentation of minorities in leadership positions. MLT actively works with business schools to increase the presence of minorities in MBA programs as preparation for leadership roles in corporations, nonprofits, and entrepreneurial ventures.
  • Posse, a national organization whose model is rooted in the belief that a small, diverse group of talented students can serve as a catalyst for individual and community development. Posse’s Graduate + Fellowship Program works to ensure that Posse Scholars and alumni consider and pursue graduate studies, including MBAs, at top-tier institutions. As part of these efforts, Posse’s Graduate School Affiliates offer Posse Scholars and alumni a limited number of full-tuition fellowships each year.
  • Prospanica, a national organization focused on academic and professional opportunities for the Hispanic community. Prospanica partners with Booth to provide networking opportunities and financial assistance to qualified Hispanic MBA students. Booth also offers seminars designed to help students prepare to make the most of the organization’s national conference. 

Once you begin Chicago Booth’s application process, you’ll be introduced to the Hispanic American Business Students Association (HABSA). This student-led group serves as a professional resource and peer network for Booth’s Hispanic/Latinx community. They help prospective students by providing application feedback, hosting mock interviews, and answering questions about our school culture. For current students, the group continues that support throughout all recruitment cycles as well as holds social activities and other ways to connect with other members of the Booth community.

Connecting with The University of Chicago

As part of the University of Chicago, Booth students have access to a plethora of resources that are housed in different offices across campus. The largest of these is The Center for Identity + Inclusion (CI+I), which is home to the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, LGBTQ Student Life, and Student Support Services. The CI+I seeks to create inclusive communities by improving intercultural communication across campus populations, and promoting student advocacy to enhance the university experience.

Since 2018, the Latinx Heritage Month Committee (LHMC) has worked to establish university-wide programming. At its core, the committee strives to celebrate Latinx students and staff as active, essential contributors to UChicago’s academic, professional, and extracurricular climate. In 2020, Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month programming includes an Open Mic night featuring Latinx voices, documentary film screenings, and a conversation about the importance of the Latinx voice in the Presidential Election. 

Exploring impact across the city of Chicago

One-third of the population of Chicago is Latino. Which means their contributions have been impactful not solely to the Latino community, but to the entire city. Our city boasts some of the most vibrant Latino communities in the country, including Pilsen, Little Village, and Humboldt Park. Within these neighborhoods you’ll find places like the National Museum of Mexican Art, the International Latino Cultural Center (which hosts Latino film and music festivals each year), and the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance. Not to mention colorful street art, traditional and fusion cuisine, and thousands of Latinx owned businesses. 

As you consider pursuing your MBA at Chicago Booth, we hope you’ll explore these resources and many more! 

 

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