By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
Baylor’s Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in STEM recently received national recognition for its efforts in celebrating culture on campus.
According to the national organization’s website, “SACNAS continues to welcome a diverse membership of over 8,000 multicultural and multidisciplinary members, hold national annual meetings and advocate for important issues related to the intersections between science, culture and community.”
Pasadena, Calif., junior Julianna Canas is vice president for the Baylor chapter of SACNAS and said the organization has two identities on a national and university level.
“SACNAS as a national organization works to exemplify and promote diversity in STEM for Chicanos, Hispanics and Native Americans, so we want our members and people on campus to grow professionally within their culture. It’s kind of finding that balance between cultural identity and implementing that into your work and into your workspace,” Canas said. “On the other hand, we also want to foster diversity, equity and inclusion here on campus.”
Last month, Baylor SACNAS received an award for their celebration of culture. According to Canas, SACNAS is one of the biggest STEM cultural diversity organizations in the world.
“We applied last year for just a chapter award … so we told them of our different accomplishments,” Canas said. “Out of every university in the United States and abroad that are part of SACNAS chapters, we received the one for cultural celebration. It’s something that we’re super excited about.”
San Antonio graduate student Malcolm Macleod, former Baylor SACNAS president, said that as SACNAS at Baylor is in its first official year as a chapter, they are still a relatively new group on campus.
“It’s a real recognition, I’d say, of all of the work and collaborative effort that we were able to all put in last year,” Macleod said. “It was really a lot of — especially as a new chapter — collaborating with a lot of different groups and departments here at Baylor to be able to do really cool events and bring people from outside of Baylor to also be able to share their culture [and] engage with students.”
According to Canas, something that the society members like to highlight is that they are part of the only organization on campus that celebrates and cultivates diversity and inclusion for Native Americans.
“I think SACNAS does a great thing at Baylor in terms of kind of highlighting … this group of people as a whole and making sure that they are heard and recognized and celebrated here on campus,” Canas said. “Baylor University has all of this culture that is being celebrated by SACNAS, and I think that puts a great highlight on our chapter as we find those inner facets of culture here on campus.”
Canas said SACNAS’s biggest goal is to make sure the organization represents these groups of people and its top priority is to gain institutional recognition going forward.
“I think it says something … how much of a positive trajectory we have moving forward and the big steps that we have made over the previous year and what we have to come,” Canas said. “We’re just super excited for the future and just waiting to see what this academic year has in store for us.”
