Adelante, Dallas College’s employee Hispanic resource group, has experienced significant growth this semester. Alexa Pujol, Adelante chair and Brookhaven Campus success coach, said the group was formed before the COVID-19 pandemic but did not take off in popularity until recently.
“We just really formed the rebirth of the group,” Pujol said. “We’re starting from the ground up.”
Adelante currently has 226 members. Pujol said the group previously had just over 100 members, before a significant spike at Adelante’s conference day in August.
Pujol said: “We were able to do a membership drive at the conference, and we are now at 226 members. So that number doubled in almost a single day.”
Pujol said she wants Adelante to be a safe space for Hispanic employees and their allies. “As a minority group, we go through a lot of things that we don’t usually talk about,” Pujol said. “As a leader of a group from a younger generation, I have a lot of ideas about what we should be talking about versus what we’ve always been talking about, which is completely different.”
Some topics Pujol said she hopes to emphasize are mental health and networking.
“We have had a lot of programming,” Pujol said. “We did a mental health session with Counseling and Psychological Services, and we’re also hosting a recurring Cafecito time, which is basically a session where we offer professional development of some kind.”
Each Dallas College campus has its own Adelante group, but Pujol serves as the chair for all of them. Pujol said, “For the different events we offer, we try to go to different campuses so that we can represent that campus and that group of people.”
Pujol said Adelante will be looking to increase its list of vendors in the future.
She said: “One of the big goals we have for next year is to try and see if we can get some local Hispanic businesses set up as vendors. That way we can have some representation there.”
Pujol said she sees the goal of Adelante as providing Hispanic employees with networking and leadership opportunities. Pujol said:“I didn’t really grow up with a view of Hispanic people in leadership. I wanted to give us these opportunities with this group. And I think that’s really important because we have a lot to offer, and we’re usually overlooked, and I don’t want us to be.”
Adelante has many events throughout the semester. Aside from the aforementioned membership drive, Pujol said a Friendsgiving potluck and professional development event was held in November at Eastfield Campus. There are also upcoming events in December.
Pujol said: “We also have a greater Hispanic Chamber of Commerce holiday party on Dec. 6.”
Pujol said the next Cafecito time will be at Mountain View Campus on Dec. 14.
Besides Pujol, some other employees involved with Adelante include Carlos Contreras as membership coordinator, Jacob Torres over marketing and communications, Larisa Ortiz as a co-chair to Pujol and Oriana Sifontes as secretary.
Adelante’s group information can be found on Dallas College’s Microsoft Sharepoint page, as well as Dallas College’s website, under Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
