Networking Event

Earlier this semester, I attended a community networking meeting that was led by Richard Reitsma. The event took place in the Campus Ministry office at Canisius College on April 11, 2017. The sole purpose of this meeting was for Richard to bring the Buffalo Latino community and the Canisius community together. There has been a loss of connection between the Latino community in Buffalo and at Canisius, in terms of the Latin American Student and Friends club. As president of LASAF, I got a chance to meet a lot of active people in the Buffalo community that work to make West side a better place. For example, I got a chance to talk to Chris who is from Push Buffalo organization. Push Buffalo is a non for profit organization that works to fight against gentrification in Buffalo as well as make the community aware that it is happening. My talk with Chris consisted of a lot of understanding of what gentrification is and he went on to tell me how specifically it is impacting Buffalo. Another person that I had the chance of meeting was Darlene Mercado who is from the Hispanic Women’s League. Her non-profit organization aims to provide Hispanic women scholarships for higher education and also provides community services/fundraisers, and more. My talk with Darlene led to plan on the possibility of connecting LASAF and the Hispanic Women’s League to work together to provide opportunities for Hispanic women at Canisius. Nevertheless, this networking event was a time well spent as I got a chance to meet more Hispanic leaders of the community.