“I come from an Ecuadorian immigrant family who came to the United States of America with lots of hopes and dreams for their family and especially for their kids,” Jennifer Sinchi, sophomore, accounting major and leadership and Spanish minor said. “As being the president and founder of the ALPFA Chapter here at Cabrini, I am really happy because it is something that is helping me out and many of our members out especially with being part of a minority group.”
ALPFA stands for Association of Latino Professionals for America. This chapter of the national organization started in the Fall of 2018 by Sinchi. She started this club because she saw that Cabrini had a large population of Latinos. There were not many clubs for the Hispanic community so Sinchi thought the club would be the perfect fit.
“The purpose of this club is to provide networking and professional development opportunities with other Hispanic professionals,” Sinchi said.
Her passion for this club all started when her academic adviser Ann Servey introduced her to the program. They needed 10 members by Fall to continue on with the club. Both Sinchi and Servey sent emails throughout the summer and the club was started.
The club currently has 30 members and anyone is allowed to join. Last semester in the Fall of 2018 the club held the first ever Hispanic heritage month event on campus called “Fiesta.”
Another event they ran was a New York conference to network. Ten students from Cabrini traveled up to New York and met people that helped them learn and gave them tools for the future.
“This club encourages the Latino community to be alive on campus,” Rose De La Luz, secretary for ALPFA, said.
ALPFA is about empowerment and knowing you can achieve great heights. In this club you will make friends but you will also connect with people that will help you with your future job experiences.
“Most Latinos feel intimidated and that should not be the case,” De La Luz said. “We want to be able to embrace our culture and motivate them to make connections. We are bilingual which makes many opportunities for us and we want to make our presence count.”
“ALPFA has a saying that is ‘Empowering Latino Leaders.’ This quote stands out so much because it is something the organization does very well on focusing on with the different events/programs that they offer nationally,” Sinchi said.
Sinchi wants to grow its members and would love for people to join. All the members have grown close to each other and became a big happy family because of this club.
Sinchi looks forward to growing this club and finding more opportunities for professional events for next semester. If you would like to join ALPFA please contact Jennifer Sinchi at jsinchi15@gmail.com
