When I was young, I knew I belonged at school. People gave me warm greetings, I learned things every day, I made friends, I won awards and my family always encouraged me to do my very best. I felt secure.

At some point, probably near the end of high school, things began to get challenging. The workload picked up, the teachers were less supportive, and I began to wonder how I would ever make it to graduation. More importantly, I had to figure out what came next. But for me, there was never a question that I would attend college. My family was proud, supportive and encouraged me to pursue my education.

Today, I am a full professor at UNC Greensboro (UNCG), a minority-serving institution in the state of North Carolina with over 20,000 students enrolled. As the Chancellor’s Fellow for Campus Climate, I hear firsthand the stories of our students as they enter our university and seek to find their path and purpose.

UNC Greensboro

For today’s Latino students, the certainties and resources that I grew up with are too often fleeting and unpredictable. Nationally, we know that while one in four children growing up in the U.S. are Hispanic/Latino, roughly one-third of those children are growing up in poverty. Poverty constrains many opportunities, especially in the area of education. Although preschool access is increasing for Latino children, disparities remain as Latinos have lower graduation and college completion rates relative to their peers.

UNCG is recognized as one of the top universities for meeting the needs of students with limited resources. We help students by focusing on their success, both today and down the line as they graduate and enter the workforce or graduate programs.

UNCG faculty and staff develop relationships with students, giving generously to listen to student stories, serving as role models, and yes, even helping locate emergency food or other resources when things get tight. In short, we pull together as a university, because that is what it takes to help students earn a degree and invest in their future. As one student shared with me after finishing her degree at UNCG, “I am so happy I took a leap of faith and decided to come here, and I have you to thank for your encouragement and support.”

While this matters for all students, being Latino in today’s world can come with unique obstacles. While just over 90 percent of all Latino youth are U.S. born and citizens, many Latino/a students have family members without documentation, and some themselves lack official status. This is despite living and attending schools in the U.S. for most of their lives. When the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was rescinded, we held a series of forums and conversations with our Latinx community to show that we recognized their ambitions, heard their dreams and supported their sense of purpose. But, how to convey a sense of belonging—that is a much more challenging task facing all of us in higher education.

Facing Today’s Challenges

So, where do we focus our efforts? First, as a professor, I seek to share my story. I am Latina, I am working in higher education and I have a Ph.D. I am working for access for very young children to early care and education opportunities (ECE) so that educational success is within their reach. As a researcher with the National Center on Hispanic Children and Families, we publish and disseminate new data showing the strength and resilience of families.

Some families are experiencing government-imposed separation from their children via detention procedures, or isolation in neighborhoods whose residents have perhaps forgotten what it must be like to want to belong, contribute to society and raise a family in the United States. Many decades ago, my family members came to this country, gained employment and education, and set forth on a path to contribute to the schools, factories and industry of our local community. I am a product of a family full of teachers, principals and educators.

At UNCG, we develop networks such as our ALIANZA Latino/Hispanic Affinity Group and bridges like our CHANCE summer camp for talented Latino/Hispanic junior and senior high school students. Since the inception of CHANCE over two summers ago, we have reached and encouraged over 120 young people and their families. This year, I met a first-year UNCG student who attended CHANCE; he said after the camp he knew he wanted to go to a university with “people who looked like me” and who had “stories like me”—I know this young man is filled with passion for his future and for our campus climate. He feels secure, he belongs.

Conclusion

Today, I am proud to invest in our students, especially students that are underrepresented among the ranks of the professoriate. I encourage them to pursue a degree and change the trajectory of their own lives and many others who come after. The UNCG student enrollment and expansion has been driven in part by the vast array of backgrounds on our campus; we are the most diverse campus in the UNC system, and our Latino population has doubled in size since 2014. Yet, Hispanic faculty like me represent less than five percent of the professors working today in higher education. Other racial and ethnic minority groups also fall behind in terms of their voices and talents being reflected in the universities across the U.S.

To create a sense of purpose, we need to belong. To build a prosperous future, we need to reach the talented many across our state, region and world. Faculty need to be hired to work with our students and meet them where they are. When you create a sense of belonging in people, they can take risks and end up in places unknown to them—isn’t that a sight worth seeing? I am grateful that I belong to this Spartan community at UNCG, and I expect our campus climate to thrive, to look for opportunities to create meaning and purpose for our students, and to find a way to a more inclusive future for all of us.•

Author Note: Dr. Julia Mendez Smith is a professor of Psychology and the Chancellor’s Fellow for Campus Climate. She is also a co-investigator for the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families.