ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — Delta Tau Lambda Sorority at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has been helping Latino students feel connected for nearly 30 years.
The organization wasn't the first Hispanic sorority on campus, but they were the first Hispanic sorority that was founded on the University of Michigan campus in 1994, and now have a presence nationwide.
“I was a girl from Southfield who was trying to find her way on this big campus at the University of Michigan and I really needed a sense of home, of community," Alpha Chapter of Delta Tau Lambda Sorority Inc. chapter consultant Paula Vinales-Bowman said.
Vinales-Bowman joined the sorority in the spring of 2006 she says the organization has grown from just a few members on only Ann Arbor's campus to about a dozen on Michigan's campus and multiple chapters nationwide.
The organization is about friendship and networking, but they also focus heavily on uplifting minorities and connecting at a university where the Hispanic undergrad population only sits at around 6 percent.
"It's very easy to get lost in the shuffle," Vinales-Bowman said.
National Board President Dr. Susan Lopez credits her success as a hospitalist to the skills she was taught while in the sorority about two decades ago.
“A lot of the things that motivated me to go into medicine overlapped so closely with some of the things we do in the organization," Dr. Lopez said. "To be surrounded by a group of people that maybe understand your culture, understand your family background or the struggles of being first-generation students is very empowering.”
Both Dr. Lopez and Vinales-Bowman want other Latina women to know there are organizations like Delta Tau Lambda there to help connect and empower and they hope young women look to them for a home in Ann Arbor.
