Latinx Student Club Loses Funding, Reinvents Itself to Continue Serving the Community

Latinx CSULB education students created their own club after the Caminos Project ended. Photo by Kobe López.

One of Alexis Monsivaiz’s earliest childhood memories is teaching her younger sister how to read. It’s what made her want to become a teacher and why she came to Cal State University, Long Beach to follow this dream. However, as a first-generation Latinx student surrounded by faculty that didn’t look like her, Monsivaiz felt lost. She didn’t feel at home until she found the Caminos program. 

Monsivaiz joined the Caminos Program freshman year and gained access to counseling, school supplies, and an opportunity to study abroad in Ireland. She said none of these resources for Latinx students like Monsivaiz would have been possible without the Caminos Project.

Originally started as the Caminos Project in 2017, the program was federally funded and curated to help students of Latinx heritage enter the education pipeline as a response to the lack of Latinx faculty in education. By 2020, the Caminos program had 400 students in their pipeline. 

The project was funded for five years by the Title V fund—a one-time grant given by the U.S. Department of Education for developing Hispanic-serving institutions. The five-year grant paid for the project directors, academic advisors, teaching seminars, supplies and other resources. It was only offered to students at Cal State Long Beach and was able to help a cohort of 100 students at a time. 

However, the funding ended in 2022, leaving the club and its members without resources for paid staff or classroom space and with one choice: move on or build something new. 

Monsivaiz, along with a few others, decided that their passion and heart for the program were too strong. They did not want to say goodbye to Caminos entirely as they believed in its mission to shift these demographics. They named the club Caminantes and Monsivaiz became co-chair.

Among the new students who’ve joined Caminantes is Minh Nguyen. Nguyen shared his struggle with his first year of college and how finding the new Caminantes club provided him with guidance. 

“Freshman year hit me like a truck, it was not like high school at all. I couldn’t just hang out at the USU all day. Week of Welcome came up and since then I have been coming [to Caminantes],” said Nguyen.

Nguyen is extremely thankful that he was able to find guidance within the education system even though he did not directly experience the loss of the Caminos Project. Nguyen is passionate about helping Caminantes fundraise and spoke about their next fundraiser. Though many members like Monsivaiz are distraught over the loss of guidance and resources, Nguyen said the board is successfully helping new interested Caminantes students like himself. 

“Currently, our student organization lacks the proper resources to support such an important demographic, which we once had when we were Caminos,” said Monsivaiz. “Our old program coordinator understood culturally responsive pedagogy and how to support disenfranchised students.”

As an underrepresented demographic in the education workforce, students like Monsivaiz need support programs like Caminos, and now Caminantes, to help them succeed as K-12 teachers. In the Long Beach Unified School District alone, 55% of students are Latinx while only 21% of faculty are, according to data from a Caminantes study.  

One issue the club has run into is the uncertain permanence of their classroom, also known as the “Centro.” Located in the education building, the “Centro” is a hub spot and safe space for many Latinx education students at CSULB. The university can take the room away at any time as there is no paid staff, but hasn’t reached out to the board to do so. Monsivaiz feels it is quite a privilege that they’ve been able to keep the room.

The new Dean of Education, Anna Ortiz, said Caminantes and all other education students would be provided enough resources to succeed as educators in K-12 or higher education. 

 “I have no intention of moving the Centro,” said Ortiz. 

Ortiz also is aware that funding has ended for Caminos and plans to meet with Caminantes in the near future to support the students as they get on their feet.

Though there are other grants available to HSIs, the Caminos Project was able to make such an impact on the students that they didn’t want it to end. 

“Caminantes and Caminos had always been a home on campus,” Monsivaiz said.