Latinx

Multicultural Vision Program scholars were asked to reflect on their first year at Iowa State in a creative way. Paulina discusses their experiences as a first-year student in Apparel Merchandising and Design and how Paulina channeled the experiences into a dress entered in the 2021 Fashion Show. See her reflection below. You can enable closed caption as needed.

My name is Hugo O. Perez Loa! I am a recent graduate from the class of Fall 2020 at Iowa State University! My Major is in BLS (Bachelors of Liberal Studies) and I’m from Storm Lake, Iowa!

The Crazy Life of A Mexican Warr;or is a YouTube video series that was created by, yours truly! I was nominated by Brian Behnken to do a collaboration with Iowa State’s MSA (Multicultural Student Affairs) Office, as well as their student website blog, The Hype, to produce a post of my experience as a Multicultural college student and, of course, as an Iowa State Student.

As I got here to Iowa State, I didn’t realize how much of an impact this new environment would have on me and my identity. I come from Des Moines, Iowa, which definitely has a diverse population when in comparison to Ames Iowa. I grew up playing soccer most of my childhood and with the sport, I was able to meet many different people from different demographic groups. With that I found myself making friends with a lot of my peers, we came from different parts of world, but our love of the sport united us.

Content Warning: This post briefly discusses depression, suicide ideation, and planning.

When I first started in my major in Global Resource Systems here at Iowa State, I was tasked with fulfilling language credits for my major, and it provided me a unique opportunity.

See, when I was in high school, I had taken American Sign Language and fully committed myself to become as conversational in the language as I could. While Spanish was offered, I was afraid to join a class in a city where 63% of the population is Latinx, and I would be the only Latinx student in the classes.

1. Start with an appropriate container. Location determines what type of container is most appropriate for you.
   1. My passions lie with regenerative agriculture and the stories of people of color. I find joy and strength when I listen to others tell their story and when I work outside under the sun with the land. Due to my passions, I study within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. I am originally from Latin America and have made my home in Iowa, specifically in a vibrant area of Des Moines.

Although Iowa State’s campus is not New York City, it can still be hectic making your way from one end of campus to another on any given day.

We’ve all had our share of experiences weaving through packed sidewalks on our way to our next class, or lunch, to our rooms, or any of the other dozens of places we as busy college students need to be. We all know the feeling of squeeeeeezing by a group of people along Osborn while hurrying to catch the next bus.

It can be rough out there, can’t it?

Participating in the Academic Program of Excellence (APEX) prepared me for college in a way I didn’t expect. The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs provided a select number of students seeking to advance in their college careers free tuition, room and board for a summer semester. In addition to classes like Psychology and English, my cohort took an APEX class that taught about social justice issues and transitioning into college as a diverse student.

CyDog? BullClone? Sound confusing? Yeah it did to me too. I am a 3 + 3-year student at Iowa State and Drake University Law School. Essentially, I am finishing my undergrad while starting my first year of law school. So while I am no longer on ISU’s campus, and am full-time at Drake, I will be crossing the ISU stage this May (wooohoo!!!).  

So how's law school?!