In celebration of Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month, Salt Lake City Community College hosted “Latinx in the Field,” an event, in part, sponsored by the STEM program that took place at Tracy Aviary’s Jordan River Nature Center in South Salt Lake on Oct. 5. Professionals from various fields including medicine, city government, biology, and cultural anthropology were there to discuss topics regarding career opportunities and internships for underrepresented students of Latin background.

SLCC assistant professor of Biology and Tracy Aviary Board of Trustees member, Emmanuel Santa-Martinez, organized the event for the benefit of the future generation of Hispanic scientists, politicians, doctors, and other professionals related to the fields of STEM. “This is a combination or collaboration between both SLCC and Tracy Aviary. The Office of Diversity Multicultural Affairs, or the O.D.M.A. of Salt Lake City Community College invited me to join their committee to plan the Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month,” said Santa-Martinez.

“We wanted a panel where people share their experiences with Latinos and Latinas in their different workplaces and fields. I wanted to provide several tabling organizations happening there, so they can provide resources, like internships, job opportunities, or maybe talk about scholarships,” said Santa-Martinez, who has first-hand experience of the benefits in receiving internships. “One thing is the classroom, but those internships helped me get into grad school with letters of recommendations. So, I want students to experience this opportunity here.”

One such inspired student, Olga Ayala, a biology major, took advantage of the opportunity. “I have been looking for internships or volunteering where I could find some experience working with animals. I had spoken to a Latinx biologist in the field a few days before the event. We talked about how it’s hard for people in our community to get experience when unpaid volunteering and internships are hardly an option. I expressed my financial concerns when looking for unpaid experience and she invited me to go to the event to see all of the support that I had,” said Ayala, who was born and raised in West Jordan.

“Had I not gone to the event, I would not have seen all of the amazing opportunities available to me.”

With the theme, “Nuestra gente y sus historias. Poder, progeso y Prosperidad”—“Our people and their stories. Power, progress and Prosperity,” “Latinx in the Field” had over 13 organizations—government and nonprofit—from outside of Salt Lake City Community College and Tracy Aviary’s Jordan River Nature Center, all helping the aspiring, young professionals of the future.

“Back then, when I was applying for internships, there were not that many, but now like people and organizations are very invested in bringing students because those are going to be basically the people that are going to be our policy makers in the future, so we need to start training them,” said Santa-Martinez, who grew up in a small town in Puerto Rico where he completed his undergrad studies before earning his Ph.D. in entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017. “The science of insects, as you can see, but I did my studies, more specifically on pollinators.”

After a brief period of uncertainty of what to do for his future, whether to undergo an education in medicine, ecology, and other subjects, Santa-Martinez narrowed it down to biology after taking a couple of summer internships. It was during the internships that his interest in the study of the world’s pollinators and their decline escalated. Now he is a passionate and driven assistant biology professor of five classes.

“I thought it was an incredibly successful event, especially being the first of what I imagine will be an annual event that not only highlights professionals in the field but promotes their important contributions that are often overlooked as well as provides networking and pathways for the next generation of professionals from diverse Latin backgrounds,” said Daniel Hernandez, one of the panelists at the event and the director of culture at Tracy Aviary.

Other panelists included a politician, medical doctor, zookeeper, and a conservation biologist—all fully Latino and Latina, all sharing their stories and experience. 

Hernandez, whose parents are from Guatemala and of Mayan roots, was born in Los Angeles but has spent most of his life in Rose Park in Salt Lake City. “I am a social-cultural anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, which means I take culture and society seriously and enjoy that study of our experiences in everyday life wherever we find ourselves on this planet we share. I was excited to get involved in my local community where I grew up and apply my cultural studies training to shake things up a bit further in conservation work especially considering the many challenges in front of us environmentally and related to a rapidly changing climate,” Hernandez said.

“Latin often refers to a colonial relationship that differs from the dominant Anglo one in the U.S. context, but there are so many different kinds of peoples and Indigenous languages and practices from the America’s and Africa and from around the world that survive and re-imagine themselves to this day across this region and are carried with people as they move around the world,” Hernandez said. 

Sageland Collaborative, Latino Outdoors, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Salt Lake Mosquito Abatement, Latinas in STEM, and the Center for Latin American Studies all set up booths for the public event.

“I hope that events like these gain more traction and attention from people in the community so these resources get used. It’s wonderful to go to an event with people who are like me, and I am not intimidated by the people in that space, and I get to talk to different individuals in the field I’m interested in being a part of,” Ayala said. “It’s nice to see that my dreams of becoming a biologist feel that much more obtainable to me, and it’s because of events like these that I feel supported. I hope that more events like these happen and that my people see them, use the resources and feel the support of their community behind them.”

“I just love seeing everyone in the classroom come from all different backgrounds, different races, ethnicity, sexual orientations, and it’s just great to be able to teach a variety of different students. It’s just a privilege to do that,” Santa-Martinez said.

 “It seems like people are requesting it for next fall. They were very impressed, and [Tracy Aviary Jordan River Nature Center] really wants to host us again—they’re having the theater and all that ready by next year,” Santa-Martinez said.