WINNER OF 2023 ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS PACEMAKER AWARD, NEWSPAPER/NEWSMAGAZINE NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION AND CALIFORNIA NEWS PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Volume 162 No. 30 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SOCIETY OF LATINO ENGINEERS
The Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists attended the 2023 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers National Convention in Salt Lake City in November.
Latino professionals network By Jonathan Canas STAFF WRITER
If you have ever passed by the SOLES organization table on Seventh Street you have most likely heard the sounds of Latin music playing from the speakers while they try to tell students what they are all about. The Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists (SOLES), founded in 1980, is recognized as a student organization associated with Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering at San José State University, according to its website. They are a student chapter of MAES: Latinos in Engineering and Science Inc. and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, according to the same website. MAES is a non-profit organization that promotes and advances representation of Latino leadership and education in STEM, according to its website.
Jose Sarabia, the current president of SOLES, said he was swayed by the music the SOLES organization was playing during the SJSU Weeks of Welcome in 2022. “I was walking through Seventh Street and I heard some banda, and I've never heard banda being played on campus,” Sarabia said. “I turned around and saw that they have this big flag that said Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists.” He said SOLES does a lot of professional events and tries to connect members with industry professionals in Silicon Valley as well as host social events to build a sense of community. Sarabia said you don’t have be Latino to join the club. “We got national recognition for getting chapter of the year out of all chapters in the United States,” he said. “Mainly for our engagement, we post a lot of our events on Instagram.” Sarabia said SOLES also hosted
the MAES leadership academy at SJSU. He said SOLES board members and regular members also go to conventions. One of those conventions is for SHPE, which is the largest gathering of ispanic STEM students and professionals according to its website. “We’re an SHPE chapter here at SJSU but there’s others across the United States,” Sarabia said. “There’s undergrad chapters, community college chapters and professional chapters and all these chapters attend the conference.” Sarabia said this year SOLES got sponsorships from Adobe, Google and Cadence. Associated Students, the dean of engineering and Mesa engineering program helped fund the students as well. Mechanical engineering senior, Antonio Hueso, the senior vice president of outreach, said SOLES also hosts networking events for students.
“We have professional events and networking events,” Hueso said. “Professional events would entail resume workshops which are tailored towards engineers.” Hueso said Cisco and Adobe are two companies that have helped with resume building workshops that everyone in SOLES can take advantage of. “When I first joined we would have around 20-25 people attend in person in our general meetings, now we have close to 50 people attending,” he said. “It’s not just students either. We have actual professionals and guest speakers come in.” Hueso said the club is now at around 150 members. He said one of the jobs of being the vice president of outreach is being the middleman between the students and companies that support the club. “I talk to them and schedule events that would benefit our members on specific dates and times,” Hueso said.
Aerospace engineering senior Jamie Salinas will be taking over as VP of outreach upon Huesos graduation this spring according to Sarabia. “For me SOLES is a familia, it’s not a place but it’s a group of people you really connect with on a deeper level since it’s hard to find Latinos in STEM,” Salinas said. Sarabia said networking was one key takeaway he took from his time in the SOLES organization. “Students don’t realize the importance of networking, you could have a 4.0 GPA but if you don't know anyone it's going to be hard to find a job,” he said. “For me joining organizations like SOLES or any organization just expands their network and it helps find a community.” Follow Jonathan on X (formerly Twitter) @jonathancanas_
Council approves youth services By Melissa Alejandres STAFF WRITER
City Council unanimously approved a status report for the Children and Youth Services Master Plan Tuesday evening at City Hall. The Children and Youth Services Master Plan seeks to create and expand opportunity pathways from youth to adulthood, according to a presentation by the City of San José. Angel Rios, the deputy city manager of the City of San José, began the discussion of the master plan. “The Children and Youth Services Master Plan will serve as a strategic road map by mobilizing, integrating and coordinating programs and services across city departments,” Rios said. Rios said public entities, educational institutions, service providers, private sectors, communities and community-based organizations will be working together to leverage community resources. Within this plan are strategic priority areas. These are critical objectives that are focused on ensuring an organization’s long-term goal, according to a webpage from Peoplebox.
Seven areas fall under the strategic priority areas all having an expected outcome, according to the same presentation by the City of San José. Areas of focus include early learning and child care, health and mental wellness, housing access and security, learning and empowerment, meaningful and sustaining jobs, safe, clean, and connected communities and the System of Care “safety net.” The City of San José’s System of care, “Safety-Net,” will allow youth and their families to have access to safety-net services, supports and opportunity pathways.
Community Center, spoke during the public comment portion about how afterschool art programs impacted her mental health. “(As) someone who was experiencing pretty severe mental health issues,” Kovac said “I definitely can fully say that having these art programs, for some people, is between life and death.”
Deitra Hoang, a San José City youth commissioner, led the presentation for the master plan and broke down PHOTO COURTESY OF ANGEL SANTIAGO the strategic priority areas. “All parents (and) caregivers City Councilmembers listen to policy speaker Sylvia Arena at a meeting Tuesday. want to have options and choices to affordable and to money for tutoring or Government’s Department of San José City Council. accessible early learning aftercare programs. Foreign Affairs and Trade. Anastasia, a community childcare opportunities,” Hoang said there are member who’s been living in “Although the pandemic is Hoang said. also opportunities to learn San José for 18 years, showed behind us, it has left many different topics including support for the program. young people struggling to financial literacy or tax filing “Our children will have recover from the impact,” This area is supposed to assistance. access to critical resources Hoang said. help graduates from high such as childcare, educational The expected outcome “The high cost of housing school and help youth and job training, leadership of this area of focus is to and housing instability forces to have opportunities to development, and physical provide youth with access to families to work multiple jobs explore different educational and mental health services,” holistic support throughout to meet their basic needs,” pathways. This area of focus ensures she said. their development journey, Hoang said. Educational pathways is a that youth can reach their full according to a presentation She said that this impacts way to describe the different potential and enter adulthood from the City of San José City the quality of life and includes ways that individuals move with essential skills required Follow the Spartan Daily Council. fewer opportunities for through the educational for entry into the employment on Instagram Jane Kovac, a recreation parents to spend time with system, according to a of their choice, according to @SpartanDaily leader at Seven Trees their children and less access webpage from the Australian a presentation by the City of