The Latin American Student Association (LASA) encourages community and professional development among graduate students from or interested in Latin America. 

Keysi Barrios, a graduate student studying textiles and president of LASA, said she became interested in the association after coming to NC State from Panama. 

“We’re trying to promote, again, community,” Barrios said. “I heard this quite a lot sometimes, even before I became president of the association. Latin American students are brought here to North Carolina to study; We struggle a lot with finding a community, especially at the beginning. So we’re trying to be that community for new students and citizens who are here for a while that might have not heard of us yet.”

According to Mariela Perez-Sepulveda, a graduate student studying soil science and treasurer of LASA, moving from Latin America to NC State is a difficult adjustment for many students due to language and cultural barriers. 

“I knew my housemate because we’re both from Puerto Rico,” Perez-Sepulveda said. “We [have] known each other for quite a long time. But when I got to my department, I was the only Spanish speaker back there. And I think I still am. So that’s kind of hard at the beginning, taking classes all the time in English, and trying to translate all of the things that I’m going to say to my professor [and] classmates, but they were really understanding and they helped me out.”

According to Barrios, LASA has planned many activities for the semester to promote the social and professional development of the members, including a karaoke night and mental health workshop. 

“We’re planning an impostor syndrome workshop in October,” Barrios said. “And that’s one of the things that we have planned for this semester. Next semester, we’ll have our symposium, which is one of the biggest academic events … We host research competitions; we have some speakers that are also from the Latin American community that are doing some important things in the U.S. That will be promoting the professional development of our members.”

Barrios said LASA welcomes all graduate students, even if they are not from Latin America.

“It’s not only for community,” Barrios said. “We also want to promote the coexistence of people that have the interest for Latin America, with Latin American students. One of our main goals is to disseminate aspects of Latin American life, culture, tradition and values and enhance the interaction between our community members, with the culture that we are living in, which is us.”

According to Perez-Sepulveda, joining LASA and attending activities not only provides community, but encourages good mental health.

“I think that one of the best things to do for us is to get out of this sometimes hard or toxic environment of always working,” Perez-Sepulveda said. “It’s a good opportunity to meet people to talk to people who have similar problems to you and to reach out if it is something that we [can do]. We actually love to have other people letting [us know] they need us, we are here. We can be your voice. And you can also express yourself; we are all ears, we will be open to do whatever we can.”

More information about LASA can be found here.