Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Photos by Tom Wilson, writer/editor-Penn College News
Penn College observed National Hispanic Heritage Month during a Tuesday event in the Bush Campus Center for students, employees and community members.
Following the same "Lunch and Learn" format as a Juneteenth program in late spring, the afternoon included speakers, a catered meal and the chance to cross-culturally engage one another in pursuit of common goals.
The annual celebration from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, recognizes the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the nation's history, culture and achievements.
The day's speakers and co-sponsors of Tuesday's Hispanic Heritage Month event stand for a group photo in Penn's Inn. From left are Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter; Susan Achury, assistant professor of political science at Lycoming College; Grecia León, a community work study interpreter and immigration aide at Thrive International Programs Inc.; Juan Martinez, a teacher's assistant for volunteer Spanish interpreters at Thrive; facilitator Nate Woods Jr., special assistant to the president for inclusion transformation; Dr. Eddie O. Rodriguez-Lopez, a local physican in family practice; Stanley Cary, manager of community relations at UPMC Williamsport; Jody Lantz, executive director of Thrive; and Cymantha Santiago-Nunez, UPMC enrollment navigator.
Among the posters displayed throughout the room is this one that greeted entrants to Penn's Inn, making clear the day's message of unity.
Woods welcomes audience members to the event, noting a healthy society's daily need to practice inclusion. "Diversity is the 'what,'" he said. "Inclusion is the 'how.'"
Mayor Slaughter, who spent time in Salamanca, Spain, as a 20-year-old studying abroad, pleasantly floored the crowd when offering his initial remarks in Spanish.
Dr. Rodriquez-Lopez and his wife, Maigrette K. Polanco-Albino, talk about settling in the area after a roundabout journey from their homeland in Puerto Rico to Idaho and Pennsylvania. While meeting resistance in some quarters from "people who didn't want us to be here," the couple have made a home and embraced a community by listening, learning and serving everybody in the same way. "Valuing how God sees you in your everyday is what truly matters," said the mother of four and grandmother of two.
A beyond-ample spread from The Empanada Shack food truck more than satisfied the afternoon's attendees.
The Thrive team details its programming in Williamsport and Lock Haven, including help toward immigrants' language proficiency, that helps make people from international cultures feel welcome and comfortable in their new communities.
PageCarol Woods, assistant dean for student success at Lycoming College, reads a prompt for small-group discussion ...
... as each table pondered how different groups might greet the inclusion of a Hispanic judge on a panel deciding an immigration case.
Professor Achury shares some of her research into gender and racial underrepresentation in the American judiciary.
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