By Ashna Balroop
La Familia, a peer mentoring program on campus, helps Latinx students at the University of Maryland transition from high school to college.
The Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Education established La Familia to provide students with personal growth and academic opportunities through mentorship, community service, social events, free tutoring through OMSE and workshop events.
Alyssa Martinez, a senior criminology and criminal justice major, is the vice president of the program. She joined La Familia after transferring to UMD her junior year.
Martinez said she finds the La Familia mentorship program helpful because it connected her to an older student within her major who she can seek advice from in regards to classes and assignments.
“First year students usually are mentored mentees and it gives you someone in your major, or someone in the same school as you that understands the assignments you have, and you can always ask for help, or you can even just meet up, chat and be friends,” Martinez said.
Without this program, Martinez said she wouldn’t have stayed at UMD.
“It gave me a community because I am from California – I’m so far away – it really kept me here and held me accountable for my academics as well, which is really important, because I probably wouldn’t have succeeded as well as I did without them,” Martinez said.
Angie Sandoval, a junior majoring in hearing and speech sciences, is president of La Familia. She joined after her freshman year of college and said that the program has taught her to embrace change and makes her feel like she belongs.
“It’s just like a little home for me. I feel very safe there,” Sandoval said.
La Familia has food at their meetings which gives the students an opportunity to escape the traditional dining hall food and savor the food that is similar to what they may have at home. This is one aspect of the program that creates community amongst the students.
As of fall 2023, latinx students make up only 10.6% of UMD students. La Familia helps these students branch out and feel comfortable with people of their cultural background.
“They’re able to meet other people that look like them, and so they don’t feel like they’re mostly one of the few people of color in their classes. It can be hard for them especially when they’re like STEM majors,” Sandoval said.
The leadership at La Familia provides their first-year mentees with academic advice and emphasizes that they will support them with non-school related matters as well.
“We’re always here for them if they need anything,” Sandoval said.
Saul Flores, the program’s graduate assistant, is a third-year doctoral student in biochemistry. He has been involved with La Familia since his freshman year of college.
When he came to the University of Maryland, he found the environment to be different from his high school.
“When I got to campus, I was very overwhelmed, because I’d been accustomed to the demographics at my high school where it was predominantly Black and Hispanic,” Flores said.
La Familia provided Flores with a peer mentor in his major.
“I saw a Hispanic person doing their major in biochemistry, and they’re about to graduate. So that means I can do it too. And that gives you that assurance that someone who comes from a similar background can do it as well,” Flores said.
Now, as a graduate assistant, he gets to offer this wisdom to the students currently in the program.
Flores said that La Familia is extremely comforting because the mentorship and resources make the college experience easier for Latino students.
“You know you’re away in college, away from family, and you just feel so alone, and you feel like maybe you’re not supposed to be here,” he said.
La Familia alleviates this issue for its student members and provides a home away from home.
Featured Image: La Familia, a program within the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Education, is pictured in Hornbake Library. Photo by Theodore Rose.