LSA is short for Latino Student Alliance, and this is a new club that was created this year. The club was founded by Dr. Colter from Maryville college, as well as Mrs. Corbett and Ms. Schoutko.

LSA is a club where we encourage the Latino community to come together. We usually meet on Thursdays during your lunch time in the library. We also have a program called “LSA Puertas,” where we have lunch for one hour and have guest speakers from different colleges around East Tennessee to come and talk to the students.

We have had people come from ETSU, Maryville, and Pellissippi come and talk to the students, not only about the college itself, but what opportunities they have to offer. These opportunities are not only for the Latino students but as well as those who are DACA status or undocumented. Being able to afford college is a bit more difficult for these individuals.

We also even have had a lady that works for the mayor in Knoxville come and talk to us about her experience and the difficulties she had to go through because of her ethnicity.

The most recent guest speaker we had was Officer Dragon from the police department here in Lenoir City. He came and talked to us about the different rights we have.

During these meetings that we have there are food and refreshments and we always have Mrs. Nehf join us. This is so you have a counselor you can always talk to for any questions. 

In this program you get to elect officers to be leaders. I am the president of this club. Our vice president is Yesenia Mejia (12), and we have a secretary who is Kerly Mejia (12). We are all seniors and are in charge of working together by organizing meetings and making everything flow smoothly. 

“My favorite part of LSA is the fact that I have so many open doors that I did not even know of and it has really helped me into getting the right path into going to college,” said Maria M. Gonzalez (12).

Latino Student Alliance is not only for the Latino students; we welcome everyone in the school that wishes to join. It is a very eye-opening experience and I could not be any happier into allowing myself to be a part of it. LSA helped me get accepted into Maryville college, as well as ETSU. It has made me feel better and opened a lot of new doors.