The new Center for Community brings students together
Editor’s note: This article was updated on Sept. 22 at 8:15 a.m. to correct the name of the center.
The new Center for Community brought people together for an opening social on Sept. 16 with the goal of promoting a safe communal space for students to celebrate cultures and backgrounds.
Shelly Ortiz is the executive director for the center and was part of the process in its proposal to the school.
“It was about bringing communities together and learning from each other,” Ortiz said. “We submitted a proposal to the Utah System of Higher Education in November, and that was approved.”
Ortiz emphasized the center’s focus on cultural education, celebration, engagement and awareness across multiple cultures and backgrounds.
“Right now, what we are doing is we are focusing on providing celebratory events around nationally or federally recognized or state recognized heritage months or holidays,” Ortiz said.
Previous activities included a Juneteenth Community BBQ, and the center represented at the Pioneer Day celebration. The recent social kicked off the events for the semester, the next being a Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration.
“The whole goal is awareness — bringing people in, becoming familiar with the center,” Ortiz said. “We have this area set up where there’s tables, where people can sit if they want to work. We have social spaces for people to engage with each other or maybe relax if they need to just decompress a little bit.”
The space is for bringing people together and creating an area for students to use and build community with each other, according to Ortiz.
“The Center of Community is for everyone at campus to get along with,” said Jaime Tellez-Quiroz, a senior double-majoring in secondary education and political science. “There’s a study room area that students can come in and study and/or have a fun time talking to peers as well.”
Tellez-Quiroz is a frequent visitor at the center and emphasized the open, comfortable atmosphere of the space.
“The Center of Community, for me these past few years, has kind of been like a safe room,” Tellez-Quiroz said. “If you’re kind of, like, over-exploding in your classroom, you can come here and relax and — if you want to — talk to the people who work here.”
The recent social was a great success, according to Ortiz and Tellez-Quiroz.
“We’ve gotten good traction, so we’ve seen a lot of people that we’ve seen in past years — past semesters — as well as a whole bunch of people I’ve never seen before,” Ortiz said. “I’m glad that the word is getting out and people are starting to become familiar with these spaces and our programming.”
USU Dining Services catered the event, and students and faculty conversed in the center’s lobby and the study area located towards the back of the office.
“They’ve been very successful because you get to know the new people around and talk to new people as well,” Tellez-Quiroz said. “From there, you can meet up after class or after these events — that’s why I kind of like the open socials because everyone’s welcome. There’s no one, like, a limit.”
The center presented speakers over the last school year that discussed their background and their journeys to success. The catered events were encouraging to students to keep going into their careers, according to Tellez-Quiroz.
“Creating those opportunities for people to learn with and from each other — that really is our primary goal, and that’s what we’re focusing on: building more opportunities,” Ortiz said.
Students can volunteer to help out with events with the center. Tellez-Quiroz said he will be volunteering at the next event and emphasized the benefits of volunteering.
“This is what I kind of like about the community: They take volunteers, any type of volunteers, to help them out,” Tellez-Quiroz said. “Every event seems very impactful, energetic and joyful.”
Ortiz emphasized the center is still new and actively developing their program and how that continues to be an iterative process.
“We’re going to have a lot of different opportunities for people to engage in ways that really help them learn the skills about other people and maybe learn about how to engage with other people as much as learning,” Ortiz said.
The Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration will be on Sept. 23 from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. in the TSC Juniper Lounge. More information on the Center for Community can be found on their website usu.edu/community.