Gabby De La Cruz
Staff Writer

The Latino Student Forum and Latino Alumni Association celebrated their 19th annual Bienvenida dinner and dance last Saturday in the Old Gym.

The event, which is an end-of-the-year celebration, began with a welcome by LSF President Nick Solis, University President Stephen Morgan and LSF Advisers Daniel Loera and Cresencio Gonzalez.

Following the dinner was an awards ceremony, which recognized students who have been significant to the club or have excelled academically. The evening ended with the students dancing the night away on the dance floor.

Sophomore Molly Morin, LSF vice president, was very excited to see alumni come and support the organization. She hopes to see many new faces in the coming year’s Bienvenida.

“I think overall the event went very well,” Morin said. “It was really nice to see so many alumni come back.”

Virginia Ng, junior biology major, attended the event in support of LSF.

“I think this event was awesome,” Ng said. “I definitely felt very welcomed and am very proud of LSF for putting on such a fun end-of-the-year celebration.”

Members Crystal Martinez and Adrianna Guaracha coordinated the event.
“We put about 24 hours of work into decorating for the event,” Martinez said. “It was a lot of work for all of us, but it was definitely well worth it.”

Martinez and Guaracha surprised Solis and Morin with special awards during the awards ceremony to thank them for all of the hard work and dedication put into LSF.

There were five other awards that were given, some of which were for LSF students and others that were for faculty and staff who strongly support the organization.

The awards were given as followed:

The Student Leader award was given to junior Evelyn Frias; the Corazon Award was given to Norma Hernandez and husband Anthony Hernandez, who are both staff of the Mosaic Cultural Institute; the Academic Excellence Award was given to senior Ivy Martinez; the Ernie Granillo Service Award was given to Sylvia Lopez, also a staff member from the MCI; The ULV-Latino Alumni “La Hizo” Award was given to Cathy Gastellum who works for the registrar’s office.

The LSF executive board also gave awards to their advisers to thank them for their support of the club.

Solis, who is a liberal studies major, was very satisfied with the night and was confident that the attendants had a lot of fun.

“The night went very well,” Solis said. “I would have liked to see more people attend, but I am very happy with the turnout and I know everyone here had a great time.”

Guaracha said she really enjoyed the music, and she would like to see more people come and be a part of the fun celebration.

“I am very happy with the turnout, but I invite new faces for next year,” Guaracha said. “We would love for more students to come and enjoy this free event.”

Gabby De La Cruz can be reached at gdelacruz@ulv.edu.