Letter from the Diversity and Inclusion Chairs: Izzy Talicuran and Rebecka Perez

Hello everyone! My name is Rebecka Perez, and I am the Diversity and Inclusion co-chair along with Izzy! I am a second year who is planning on majoring in Global Public health and French. I have been a part of VWC since fall of 2019. Hi everyone, I’m Izzy, and I am a third year majoring in biomedical engineering and minoring in computer science. I joined VWC spring 2019 and have enjoyed being part of this group ever since then! This was VWC’s first semester with the Diversity and Inclusion Chair, so we have been working hard despite the pandemic trying to lay a solid foundation for future Chairs. In October we held  our first event where we celebrated LatinX heritage month by watching the movie Selena which follows the life of a Mexican-American female artist and her journey to becoming a musical legend. We chose this film because of the many concepts and topics discussed in the movie. Selena broke many barriers in the sense that she was able to connect Mexican culture to American Culture. The event was an overall success, but we did learn that zoom might not be the best place to stream a movie because it was lagging throughout the film. Along with this we gave a presentation about Latinx Heritage Month and Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. In the presentation we listed facts and the importance of LatinX culture in the US. At the end of the presentation we gave VWC members a list of documentaries/films that deal with LatinX culture and US policies that affect the LatinX community. Currently we are planning our final event for the semester in which we will discuss the election of our new Vice President Kamala Harris, who has broken many barriers as well as redefined many concepts. We believe that VWC can benefit from learning about our new Vice President. We are super honored to be the first Diversity and Inclusion Chairs, and we are extremely grateful for the support our Alums have provided for us in this new environment. Special thanks to Sarah Begeman and Irma Palmer, who have reached out to help with the development of this new position. We hope you all have a wonderful November!