High School Visit
As part of its Founder's Week of activities, sisters of LTA hosted a high school visit for male and female students from Southwest Detroit. The students received information about admissions, financial aid, and college life as well as tours of Central Campus, the Law School, the Engineering School, and the Architecture School. Afterward, we all had dinner at Cottage Inn.
In celebration of our chapters Founder's Week, celebrating two years of Latin excellence and empowerment of women at the University of Michigan, LTA hosted a Poetry Slam featuring the Latino Poets' Association (LPA) on January 22, 2002 in the Michigan League Underground. The Latino Poets' Association is a multicultural poetry group from Southwest Detroit. After LPA members recited their works, the mic was opened up to the audience who enlightened us all with their own works of poetry and spoken word.
"Do we as women of color with the college community have a responsibility to uplift and empower women of color outside the campus environment?"
This was the question brought up by the University of Michigan National Council of Negro Women. Sisters from Lambda Theta Alpha along with alpha Kappa Delta Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Sister 2 Sister, Women of Color Symposium, Zeta Phi Beta, and Zeta Sigma Chi formed the panel that discussed this question in a lively dialogue on October 29, 2001.
Lambda Theta Alpha was a co-sponsor of the Muslim Student Association and the School of Social Work's program to inform students about Islam and the hijab (the Islamic headscarf) worn by Muslim women on September 27, 2001. Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Muslim women who wear the hijab have been targets of physical and verbal assault. As a gesture of solidarity, American non-Muslim women volunteered to wear either the hijab or white ribbons for one day on September 28, 2001. The goal of this activiy is to diffuse the racist backlash against Muslim women and to powerfully demonstrate that Islam and Americanness are not mutually exclusive.
Silvia Pedraza, a professor from the UofM Department of Sociology, spoke about Latino/a identity in the U.S. in a lecture entitled “Ethnic Identity: Developing a Latino/a pan-Ethnic Identity.” This event, held on October 8, 2001 was part of Lambda Theta Alpha’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.
On September 17, 2001, Lambda Theta Alpha and the UofM Nursing School's Office of Multicultural Affairs sponsored a Hispanic Heritage Month event entitled “HIV: Latinas’ Perspective on Culture, Health, and Sexuality.” Our keynote speaker was Antonia Villarruel PhD, RN, FAAN. Dr. Villarruel is an Associate Professor at the School of Nursing. She presented an interactive approach to teach about HIV and HIV prevention among Latinas.
On January 18, 2001, Guadalupe Lara, MSW, a nationally recognized social worker and expert in minority health care issues, spoke to a packed crowd about her experiences working in the health care field and the importance of cultural sensitivity in health care. This event was part of Beta Omicron’s Founder’s Week as well as an MLK Day 2001 event. The event was sponsored by Lambda Theta Alpha and the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives (OAMI).
In an effort to increase scholarly excellence among the Latino community at UofM, Lambda Theta Alpha held an academic workshop at the beginning of the winter semester. On January 16, 2001, Alicia Ortez from the Comprehensive Studies Program offered tips to improve our study skills, time management skills, and stress relief tips.
In an effort to increase the number of college students registered to vote, Lambda Theta Alpha registered students on campus to vote during the week of September 25. Lambda Theta Alpha strongly believes that your vote is your voice. Change cannot come about if we do not actively voice our needs and concerns.
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, La Voz and Lambda Theta Alpha sponsored a showing and discussion of the HBO documentary "Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S.” on October 5, 2000. The documentary features stories about students, urban and rural culture, immigration, farm workers, musicians, literature, poetry, art, U.S. Latino traditions and many more aspects of Latino life in the U.S.
The Interested Ladies of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. University of Michigan, traveled to Washington D.C. to march for immigrant civil rights on October 16, 1999. We manned the table of the Latino Civil Rights Center along with its president Roberto Frisancho.