Photo by MEChA de Georgetown
2016 Mechistas
MEChA de Yale @ Georgetown
Nine Mechistas attended the East Coast Chicano/a Student Forum hosted by Georgetown University on April 5 – 7. The theme was The State of Chicano/Latino Affairs: Claiming Our Future. Students attended a wide array of workshops, including Latino/as in the Catholic Church, the history of Mexican migration to the United States and the Student/Farmworker Alliance.
Cristal Suarez, Class of 2016
Residential College: Trumbull
Hometown: Visalia, California
High School: San Joaquin Memorial High School
Why did you join MEChA? I wanted to educate myself about issues important to the Latino community, and to discover the role I could play to encourage society to be more equal and fair. I also found that the MEChA community itself was very welcoming and I was encouraged to join by students I met at Bulldog Days!
What other activities are you involved in aside from MEChA? Being a freshman liaison at La Casa has been one of the most rewarding activities. I am also a part of Community Health Educators and I teach middle school classes on nutrition. I also volunteer at Yale-New Haven Hospital, through a program called the Living History Project. I prepare a narrative after interviewing patients in order to help their doctors better understand them. I have also loved being a part of BookMarks, where I read with kids at an after-school program.
What is your favorite experience with MEChA? I’ve loved the many moments when I have connected with someone and discovered how much I can share with others. MEChA has been great at giving me chances to get to know what people are passionate about and what inspires them. If I had to choose a single moment, it would be attending ECCSF at Harvard because it was amazing to see so many Latino students working to have their voices heard.
Photo by Harvard-Radcliffe Raza
Twelve MEChistas attended the East Coast Chicano/a Student Forum at Harvard from Feb. 15 – 17.
The theme of the conference was Latinos in the Media. Highlights include hearing “Noticiero” co-anchor María Elena Salinas give a speech on issues currently affecting Latinos, watching Mariachi Véritas de Harvard perform and eating burritos at Felipe’s Taqueria.
