The Latino Student Organization (LASO) proudly promotes and supports Harvard Business School’s Latino students and works alongside the Latino Alumni Association (HBSLAA). Representing a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, interests, and Latino heritage, LASO members spearhead initiatives related to MBA Admissions, alumni engagement, career development, and more to advocate for and empower the Latino community on campus and beyond. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we asked LASO members to tell us about what being part of LASO means to them.
As I walked down Treasury’s steps for the first time at the White House complex, I looked up at the East Wing, and the vivid images came rushing to my head. I pictured my parents fleeing the violence in Colombia and the stark contrast of Treasury’s polished steps with the worn, creaking steps of my childhood apartment complex. I recollected the decisive moments that brought me from my hometown of Long Beach, California to Washington, D.C., where I had the honor of working with our nation’s most senior leaders, as well as our global allies and partners.
Fast forward to today, where I’m privileged to walk along Harvard Business School’s beautiful campus, and those same starkly contrasting images come to my mind. They constantly remind me of my purpose here, driven by my family, faith, and friends: to create a more prosperous, equitable, and peaceful world. To borrow from the poetry of civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin Mays, I may only have a minute to do this, “but eternity is in it.”
To be a Latino at HBS means that this is much more than just the next step in advancing my career. It represents the opportunity to create a seat at the table for the communities I come from, and continues a marathon that began long ago when my parents took those first steps out of Colombia.