{"id":236,"date":"2006-12-19T21:01:06","date_gmt":"2006-12-19T21:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/2006\/12\/19\/join-alas-and-spread-your-wings\/"},"modified":"2022-07-16T11:07:43","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T16:07:43","slug":"join-alas-and-spread-your-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/join-alas-and-spread-your-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Join ALAS and spread your wings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"holaa-3019875196\" class=\"holaa-before-content\" style=\"margin-top: 2px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><div class=\"holaa-adlabel\">Advertisements<\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.desmoinesperformingarts.org\/whats-on\/series\/summerarts\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"HI-SummerSeries-728&#215;90-SP\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HI-SummerSeries-728x90-SP.jpg\" alt=\"\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HI-SummerSeries-728x90-SP.jpg 728w, https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HI-SummerSeries-728x90-SP-300x37.jpg 300w, https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HI-SummerSeries-728x90-SP-696x86.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"  style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/a><\/div><br style=\"clear: both; display: block; float: none;\"\/><p>The Association of Latin<a href=\"index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=212&amp;Itemid=2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignleft size-full wp-image-235\" title=\"alas\" src=\"http:\/\/166.62.41.2\/~holaamericanews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/alas.jpg\" alt=\"alas\" width=\"250\" height=\"188\" align=\"left\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" \/><\/a> American Students or ALAS for short is the only organization at Black Hawk College catering to the Hispanic community. Being a student organization, the students lead the group\u2019s discussions ranging from community service to special trips to leadership conferences. The students have different reasons on why they joined the club. <!--more--> Ricardo Cardozo was curious about the club and he\u2019s been part of the group ever since. ALAS member Alma Garfias, who is a nursing major and also a member of the International Student Association, recommends a couple of things to the group. \u201cIt\u2019s the only association for Latin American students at Black Hawk College. I think that we should be involved in even more community activities and I hope the club is advertised more,\u201d Garfias said.<br \/>\nSome, like Rey Grijalva, joined the organization to meet new people and to help the community. \u201cThe best thing to me has been getting to meet new people while promoting a better understanding of our culture within the confines of not only our college, but our community,\u201d Grijalva said.<br \/>\nPresident of the organization, Favi Nache, a pre-med major, describes what it\u2019s like to be president. \u201cBeing a leader in ALAS is great. You get the opportunity to talk to different people, and meet new people,\u201d Nache said.\u00a0 \u201cBeing president is more than what I expected, and although there have been ups and downs it has been a wonderful experience.\u201d<br \/>\nALAS Secretary Betzy Maya is also a pre-med major and plans on transferring this spring to Loyola University in Chicago. She says that being the secretary of ALAS has taught many things, \u201csuch as becoming a better student and learning how to communicate with others. The most unforgettable experience will be the people that I met. I will carry the memories and lessons with me for a long time,\u201d Maya said.<br \/>\nThe other officers are Vice-President Fina Nache and Treasurer Guillermo Jimenez. The organization advisers are Cristina Greene and Psychology professor William Hampes.<br \/>\nThe club\u2019s mission statement reads: \u201cWe are a group of students encouraging other students in the pursuit of a higher education, the development of leadership skills, the participation in community service, and the promotion of diversity through educational, cultural, and social activities.\u201d A mission that has proved to carries over even after students leave Black Hawk College, since many past members are active community volunteers, business leaders, and promoters of diversity in their perspective careers.\u00a0 Whatever the reason for joining, many who have past through the ALAS Club have set an example for the present group and others to come.\u00a0 Thus showing that regardless of our heritage, or economic background, through education and groups like ALAS, we can improve our lives and in turn improve our community.<\/p>\n<div id=\"holaa-3972080630\" class=\"holaa-after-content\" style=\"margin-top: 1px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><div class=\"holaa-adlabel\">Advertisements<\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/yourlifeiowa.org\/locations?&#038;utm_campaign=FY2026_OD2A_MOUD&#038;utm_content=Recovery_is_Possible&#038;utm_medium=banner&#038;utm_source=iowa_newspaper_association\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"287-10024_MOUD_300BannersF_es-US_LaRecuperacion_01\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/287-10024_MOUD_300BannersF_es-US_LaRecuperacion_01.jpg\" alt=\"\"  width=\"300\" height=\"250\"  style=\"display: inline-block;\" \/><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Association of Latin American Students or ALAS for short is the only organization at Black Hawk College catering to the Hispanic community. Being a student organization, the students lead [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/holaamericanews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}