Latinx Heritage Month at NC State wrapped up on Oct. 15, after a month of engaging events for the campus community. From the Latinx Heritage Month speaker series to a new mural unveiled outside the Poole College of Management, Multicultural Student Affairs’ (MSA) annual celebration turned out to be a big hit in the midst of a newly-reopened campus.

According to MSA Assistant Director Gavin Bell, the introduction of events and gatherings both large and small was crucial in this year’s successful Latinx Heritage Month.

“We wanted to have opportunities that were a little bit more intimate as well, to foster connections within a lot of the Latinx community,” Bell said. “Primarily because a lot of students — not even just first-years, a lot of sophomores and, technically, juniors — haven’t really been on campus. A lot of them weren’t even aware of the different organizations.”

Jessica Terrones, a fourth-year studying math education, works as the student coordinator at MSA and took part in the Latinx Heritage Month Planning Committee. From the beginning, Terrones was involved in fleshing out the design and marketing aspects of MSA’s celebration.

“Within it, we kind of subdivided within different groups,” Terrones said. “Some people focused more so on, let’s say, the Latinx Takeover, while others focused on the Latinx Hangout. We kind of did a little bit of everything.”

Given the overwhelming aspects of an in-person semester for the first time since March 2020, Bell and the rest of MSA focused on giving students an early heads-up for in-person events. Furthermore, an ingenious solution was implemented to give participants a safe space during the event, should they need one.

“We had green wristbands, yellow wristbands and red wristbands,” Bell said. “So when people came to our events, the green wristband [said] ‘You can come and shake my hand, meet me, have a more intimate conversation.’ Yellow was ‘I want to keep my distance a little bit,’ and red was ‘I’ll definitely keep my distance.’

Thanks to the color-coded wristbands and early event marketing, students were able to meet and mingle throughout several events geared toward the celebration of the campus Latinx community.

“I just found it to be a great opportunity for me to remember who I am and my background, as well as its place within academics,” Terrones said. “I think for most of us, we tend to have different identities within that and so for it to come together in one place — it’s [great].”

Latinx Heritage Month is the first of several heritage months that MSA is celebrating over the course of the 2021-2022 school year. According to Bell, recognizing and commemorating different communities on campus is crucial for students looking to navigate a large school such as NC State.

“I think these heritage months provide an opportunity to fast-forward that process for a lot of students,” Bell said. “Particularly because [Latinx Heritage Month] just so happens to fall at the beginning of the year, it’s really strategic in that regard, because it allows students to get used to navigating these different organizations.”

Bell, Terrones and the rest of the MSA staff will be taking important lessons away from this year’s celebration, putting what they know now toward Native Heritage Month, Black History Month and more.

“A lot of students came for more active-related activities,” Terrones said. “That was interesting. Also, the Tuesday Hangouts were nice, because I think it just created a space for all types of students to come in.”

From this year’s Latinx Heritage Month, MSA learned that a wide array of different students representing different races and identities is crucial in planning a slate of activities that impact the entire campus community.

“I want multiple different organizations represented, I want multiple different races and identities within the Latinx community represented on our committee,” Bell said. “Because that’s going to be important when we’re trying to have an impact across the entire Latinx community.”

With a diverse planning community and the presence of dedicated students and staff showing up day after day at MSA to pull together events for the Latinx community, Latinx Heritage Month was a hit after a year and a half of Zoom gatherings.

“It allows students to know they have a place within campus and that they’re being recognized,” Terrones said. “They have a community they can reach out to if they ever need to, or just to hang out.”