College of Education and Behavioral Sciences News

Every fall, a full month is set aside to honor Hispanic and Latin Americans in the U.S. by focusing on their cultures and unique contributions to American society.

WKU’s Amy Bingham has more on how WKU has been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month in this week’s View from the Hill.

WKU’s Hispanic organization known as HOLAS, Hilltopper Organization of Latin American Students, has been around for 10 years. It’s more active than ever, especially during Hispanic Heritage month.

“I’m from the Dominican Republic.  I was born and raised there and I came to the United States when I was 15 years old so five years ago.”

Junior Emily Then Torres says she was surprised at the size of WKU’s Hispanic population.

“When I got here I didn’t know there were so many Hispanic people on campus.  I thought I was one of five or something like that.”

Emily currently serves as membership coordinator of HOLAS, which stands for Hilltopper Organization of Latin American Students.  And she has helped plan events for Hispanic Heritage month.

“I did All Around the World, it was an event that we had at the Honors College.  We had food, prizes.”

Senior Julio Torales Guadalupe was born in Mexico but has been in the United States since he was three.

He is a past president of HOLAS and remains actively involved.

“I got involved with them my first semester coming here.  It’s just a wonderful experience cause like where I’m from there isn’t that many people that are Spanish speaking or just from similar backgrounds as me.”

He says events like the Hispanic art show or a recent Hispanic cookout bring the community together.

“It’s nice that people get an understanding of where we come from.”

“We are a big community here. It’s not just me and my friends, there are more people.”

HOLAS advisor Fabian Alvarez says the membership has grown from 14 to more than 60 active members this year.

National Hispanic Heritage month runs from September 15 to October 15.