All about 'servingness'

University of Redlands embraced inclusivity, community growth, and rich traditions during Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM), welcoming the 2024 Diversity in Action (DIA) resident, and engaging students, faculty, and staff in events highlighting U of R’s Hispanic-Service Institution (HSI) status and its positive impact on the community. 

Marcella Cuellar, Ph.D. was introduced as the 2024 DIA resident—a visiting role created in 2020 as part of a commitment to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion across the university community. An associate professor and chancellor’s fellow in the University of California, Davis School of Education, Cuellar focuses her work on the experience and outcomes of Latinx/a/o students at HSIs.  

Cuellar’s week on campus was spent engaging the campus community through various discussions, including a keynote address, “Journeys toward Servingness: Enacting Change at Hispanic-Serving Institutions.” 

“I want to turn to this notion of HSI’s or servingness as a journey, which is defined as the intentionality to serve students, Latina students, under this guise or identity of being an HSI,” Cuellar said during the keynote. “HSI is more than just closing equity gaps. It’s about ensuring that we're providing students with an education that's going to allow them to achieve their dreams and aspirations that they have.” 

Reflecting on her research, Cuellar emphasized the importance of student voices when it comes to the success of an HSI.  

“Students can often be the insight to understand, ‘Are we meeting our HSI goals, are we meeting our servingness goals,’” Cuellar said. “Students themselves can be knowledge generators and change agents towards servingness. We can provide opportunities for them to work with us to define solutions.” 

Continuing through HHM, the HSI office celebrated the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, with events like la bienvenida (the welcome), that brought Bulldogs together for games, food trucks, and a DJ on the Quad. Other events included soccer games, lotería at The Den, a film screening, and special programming including Latino Conservation Week.  

“There are so many ways to engage with HSI,” inaugural HSI Grant Director Dr. Marina Serna Pulido ’16, ’23 said. U of R was designated as an HSI in 2021. Serna Pulido joined U of R earlier this year, working on various initiatives through the grant or Proyecto Dirección.  

“The HSI designation allows us to have specialized funding that furthers our servingness for Hispanic students, as well as our academic and mentoring programming,” Serna Pulido said. “This grant also allows for a subcategory called fondo dirección, which allows students to apply for mini grants to initiate their own programming here at Redlands. This helps empower students to advance the HSI mission with us.” 

As HHM comes to an end, the transformative journey of Redlands as an HSI continues with upcoming events including a sponsored Public Square screening and a community panel of, "Dreamers" at 6 p.m. November 18 in Hall of Letters 100, tabling at Homecoming, and an open house for its new on-campus office in Hunsaker 119.  

Click the link to learn more about Redlands Hispanic Service Institution status and the Diversity in Action Residency.