Photo Gallery: Vanessa Villar, Latinx Leader, Using Her First Amendment to Make a Difference on Campus

Photo Gallery: Vanessa Villar, Latinx Leader, Using Her First Amendment to Make a Difference on Campus

Vanes­sa Vil­lar, 21, is cur­rent­ly a senior com­mu­ni­ca­tions major from Hart­ford, Con­necti­cut at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut. Vil­lar is the Lat­inx Stu­dent Lead­er­ship Coun­cil Coor­di­na­tor for the Puer­to Rican Latin Amer­i­can Cul­ture Cen­ter. Her main mis­sion on cam­pus as a Lat­inx leader is to make sure the voic­es of stu­dents, espe­cial­ly those in PRLACC, are heard. 

As some­one who iden­ti­fies with a minor­i­ty group on cam­pus, Vil­lar feels it’s nec­es­sary that stu­dents are pro­vid­ed with the encour­age­ment and space to embrace their right to free­dom of speech. Accord­ing to Vil­lar, she feels the uni­ver­si­ty has cre­at­ed an envi­ron­ment where she feels com­fort­able speak­ing to admin­is­tra­tors, the university’s Board of Trustees, and in oth­er occa­sions where she wants to express her views. Pho­to by: Cami­la Vallejo 
“Most minori­ties are used to not hav­ing their voic­es heard, so gen­er­al­ly express­ing their views is hard for them. As the coor­di­na­tor, I want to be some­one more relat­able and approach­able for these stu­dents to dis­cuss their issues at the uni­ver­si­ty,” said Vil­lar. Pho­to by: Cami­la Vallejo 
Specif­i­cal­ly through the Lat­inx Stu­dent Lead­er­ship Coun­cil, Vil­lar pro­vides work­shops and pro­grams for stu­dent lead­ers with­in PRLACC that will enhance both their lead­er­ship and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills. Vil­lar believes that by pro­vid­ing these resources to stu­dents, they can feel more com­fort­able in voic­ing their con­cerns on cam­pus. Pho­to by: Cami­la Vallejo 
“Although we want stu­dents to express their opin­ions, hate speech is def­i­nite­ly an issue on this cam­pus because a lot of peo­ple feel they can tar­get who­ev­er they want and say what­ev­er they want in a very rude and nasty way,” said Vil­lar. “The uni­ver­si­ty then doesn’t do enough to han­dle that neg­a­tive aspect of free­dom of speech.” Pho­to by: Cami­la Vallejo 
For stu­dents that want to voice their opin­ions, Vil­lar sug­gests the Under­grad­u­ate Stu­dent Gov­ern­ment as a good begin­ning. When she was involved with USG as the Mul­ti­cul­tur­al and Diver­si­ty Sen­a­tor in pre­vi­ous years, she wit­nessed that the orga­ni­za­tion was effec­tive in try­ing to fix issue stu­dents expressed to them. How­ev­er, Vil­lar would sug­gest that USG seek issues on cam­pus, as oppose to wait­ing for stu­dents to come to them. Pho­to by: Cami­la Vallejo 

55 Replies to “Photo Gallery: Vanessa Villar, Latinx Leader, Using Her First Amendment to Make a Difference on Campus”

  1. This arti­cle is a must-read for any­one who cares about qual­i­ty jour­nal­ism and the pur­suit of truth. The author’s abil­i­ty to present com­plex issues in a clear, con­cise, and engag­ing man­ner is tru­ly impres­sive, and their com­mit­ment to pre­sent­ing bal­anced and unbi­ased per­spec­tives is admirable. What I love most about this arti­cle is its abil­i­ty to pro­vide read­ers with a deep and nuanced under­stand­ing of impor­tant social and polit­i­cal issues, mak­ing it a valu­able resource for any­one look­ing to deep­en their under­stand­ing of the world around them.

    Reply

  2. This arti­cle is a must-read for any­one who cares about qual­i­ty jour­nal­ism and the pur­suit of truth. The author’s abil­i­ty to present com­plex issues in a clear, con­cise, and engag­ing man­ner is tru­ly impres­sive, and their com­mit­ment to pre­sent­ing bal­anced and unbi­ased per­spec­tives is admirable. What I love most about this arti­cle is its abil­i­ty to pro­vide read­ers with a deep and nuanced under­stand­ing of impor­tant social and polit­i­cal issues, mak­ing it a valu­able resource for any­one look­ing to deep­en their under­stand­ing of the world around them.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *