{"id":1155,"date":"2021-08-11T15:43:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T19:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/?p=1155"},"modified":"2022-02-22T10:15:35","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:15:35","slug":"building-a-sense-of-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/2021\/08\/11\/building-a-sense-of-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Sense of Belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a high school junior, William G. Dominguez-Barrios wondered not only if he belonged in college, but if so, how he would get there. That changed after attending the first Hispanic Student College Institute on the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ State campus, an experience that inspired confidence that a higher education was achievable.<\/p>\n<p>Five summers later, as he begins his senior year as a double major in Medical Humanities and Psychology, Dominguez-Barrios is sharing his experiences as a mentor to Latinx students discovering their own path to college.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have so many goals and so many things to live up to,\u201d Dominguez-Barrios says. \u201cI tell myself, \u2018You have to finish, it\u2019s going to get hard, but nothing\u2019s impossible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The encouragement is at the heart of the Hispanic Student College Institute, a program that emphasizes the University\u2019s commitment to Latinx students and their families in increasing access to college, and achieving academic and career success.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Video: Hispanic Student College Institute Opens Doors\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_DCYB96DUE8?feature=oembed\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen style=\"width: 500px; height: 281px; border: 0px solid #000;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Hispanic Student College Institute is supported by State Farm Insurance. In addition, the program recently received additional federal dollars for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2021\/07\/09\/university-uses-covid-19-relief-funding-to-bridge-transitions\/\">coronavirus relief <\/a>due to the University\u2019s designation as a Minority Serving and Hispanic-Serving Institution. The magazine, <em>Hispanic Outlook on Education<\/em>, has listed Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ State among the Top 100 Colleges for Hispanics for the past 18 years. The U.S. Education Trust describes Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ State as a \u201cTop Gap Closer\u201d for increasing graduation rates for minority students.<\/p>\n<p>This summer, with the University following strict COVID-19 protocols, including that students be fully vaccinated, about 70 Hispanic high school students attended the three-day program July 26-July 28, many who will be the first in their families to go to college. Students lived on campus, attending sessions on college planning, essay writing, financial aid and choosing a major. A full day of separate workshops were offered for the parents and extended family members.<\/p>\n<p>At networking events, students met professional and academic mentors. The peer mentors aspect of the program (many like Dominguez-Barrios also attended while in high school) is among the most popular of the Institute. The peer mentors note the ongoing support once at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ State helped them reach their personal, educational and professional goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to provide as much information as possible for these students to be successful and to approach the college application process from a better position,\u201d says Katia Paz Goldfarb, associate provost for Hispanic Initiatives and International Programs. \u201cAt the same time, we want them to see themselves belonging on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"responsive-image-holder wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mlt-responsive-image\" data-original-image=\"\/giving\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/150\/2021\/08\/2021-07-29_hsci-2.jpg\" src=\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/giving\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/150\/2021\/08\/2021-07-29_hsci-2.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\" alt=\"Close view of student wearing HSCI face mask\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Discovering a path to college is at the heart of the Hispanic Student College Institute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"responsive-image-holder wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mlt-responsive-image\" data-original-image=\"\/giving\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/150\/2021\/08\/2021-07-29_hsci-3.jpg\" src=\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/giving\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/150\/2021\/08\/2021-07-29_hsci-3.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\" alt=\"Foreshortened view of HSCI students taking notes at an information session\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students live on campus, where they attend classes on college planning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"responsive-image-holder wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mlt-responsive-image\" data-original-image=\"\/giving\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/150\/2021\/08\/2021-07-29_hsci-4.jpg\" src=\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/giving\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/150\/2021\/08\/2021-07-29_hsci-4.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\" alt=\"Speaker standing in front of a group of HSCI students\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keynote speaker Gian Paul Gonzalez \u201907 urged the students to be \u201call in\u201d and take personal responsibility for their success.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Story by Staff Writer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/~lehrenma\">Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/a>. Photos by Staff Photographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/~petersm\">Mike Peters<\/a>. Video by Staff Videographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/~apostolouc\">Christo Apostolou<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2020\/10\/07\/the-latinx-experience-at-montclair-state\/\">The Latinx Experience at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ State<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/cehs\/2020\/10\/28\/researchers-study-impact-of-coronavirus-on-latinx-communities\/\">Researchers Study Impact of Coronavirus on Latinx Communities<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hispanic Student College Institute inspires success and persistence on college path<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montclair-state-university-donors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1248,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions\/1248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/giving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}