HCCC & Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Address Needs of Latino Immigrant Population

A day long series of panel discussions among the leaders of Hudson County Community College and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities was held on Thursday.

The sessions highlighted what is being done at HCCC, and what still needs to be achieved, in order for HCCC students to have the best chance to succeed in the workforce following graduation.

Hudson County Community College has a 57% Latino student population.  The panrl discussions held Thursday focused on programs and policies already in place at HCCC to make Latino immigrants’ paths to success following graduation easier to achieve.  Dr. Antonio Flores, the President and CEO of HACU stressed the importance of getting an education in order to succeed in the workforce.

              HCCC is proud that it has bilingual employees in every department.  As HCCC Latino Advisory Council member Wendy Martinez stressed, linguistics is critically important.  If immigrant students don’t feel they can verbalize their concerns or issues at the college, then they likely will not succeed in their academics.  Moving forward, that cannot be an advantage once they enter the workforce, a sentiment Dr. Flores strongly agreed with. The partnership HCCC has forged with HACU through events like Thursday’s will go a long way to enabling immigrant students achieve and succeed both in the classroom and beyond.