Last week, on Thursday night, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), a student organization founded in 1988 by Stevens alumnus Hermes Gonzalez, held its third annual LatinX in the Workplace Alumni Panel. Through this panel, members of SHPE were able to listen to real experiences from students who walked in their shoes not long ago.
SHPE President Giovanni Duran explained that, “Having alumni come back to talk about their experiences allows our members to learn that although they are part of a minority, they have the potential to become success stories.”
Thirty-one undergraduate students were in attendance and the panel comprised three SHPE alumni: Xavier Rosario, Jose Angeles, and Alvaro Home.
Angeles, an employee at Ernst and Young, stated that the workplace in Arizona was “not that friendly towards Hispanics.”
“You have to deal with it,” Angeles explained to his old SHPE acquaintances, “You have to be professional about it”
Home, currently employed at TheaterMania, recounted the time immediately following Trump’s election when his coworkers “made snarky remarks regarding immigrants”
“‘It doesn’t matter because it will never affect me,'” Home recalled an employee’s offhanded comment. Home also detailed the manner in which he handled such commentary, as a Columbian American: he chose his battles and tried to make the best out of his work environment.
Panel attendees submitted questions prior to the event through the app Sli.do; according to Lennett Vasquez-Euceda, this was done intentionally to encourage SHPE members to ask honest questions without being put on the spot.
Moreover, Tiffany Fonque, SHPE Secretary, related, “This year is the first we have formed a SHPEtina Committee, which will be reaching out to professionals for assistance with workshops, aimed at increasing professional and leaderSHPE levels of Latinas within STEM fields.”
It is worth noting that Duran is also the president of the newly formed LatinX Council, which encompasses SHPE, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity Inc. (LUL), Latina American Association (LAA), and Omega Phi Beta Sorority Inc. (OPB).
“SHPE works closely with the LatinX Council and shares a joint calendar of events with them to better coordinate career-related events,” Duran described the relationship between the two organizations. He elaborated that one of the benefits of having this council is that all the aforementioned organizations provide a diverse source of alumni, who are always eager to speak at events such as this one.
Going forward, SHPE is planning to host one informational session per month to cover a wide array of majors. They are also going to be in attendance at the upcoming LatinX STEM Career Event (NYC) on October 12, according to Fonque.
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