Emily Moreno

Emily Moreno is a part of the class of 2022 . She studies Accounting at the Farmer School of Business and Spanish as her minor. When off campus, she lives with her family, where she is the second oldest. Moreno is the first of her family to attend college and was thankfully able to because of her academic scholarships. Moreno's family is from El Junco, Guanajuato, Mexico. Her father and his family were able to come to the United States through Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Amnesty Law, which allowed roughly 3 million people in the country to gain legal status. Moreno is from Painesville, Ohio. According to Niche, Painesville ranks 9 of 728 most diverse places to live in Ohio. Throughout her childhood Moreno was surrounded by diversity, particularly a heavy Latinx population. However, once she arrived at Miami University she experienced a culture shock. She especially struggled to fit in her first year. She felt as if she had no community since she wanted to stay connected to her culture. 

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Within her first 2 years she wasn't a part of any Latinx based organizations due to low visibility of these organizations on campus. Although UNIDOS was an established organization on campus it had undergone changes throughout the years. She has worked hard to be involved and make a community on campus through her involvement in UNIDOS. Moreno shared that she holds mixed feelings about being represented on campus. She sometimes does feel represented, however, other students take up spaces that are not meant for them. By this she means that at times there is little Latinx representation on campus and when there is, they are taken by people who do not help or reach out to the Latino community. 

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She believes Miami needs to spread more awareness on Latinx issues that truly impact the community. However, she thinks student involvement is also critical to be able to advance. In many of her classes, Moreno has noticed a lack of diversity. With that being said, in her first semester, students had come to her because of her Latinx background in order to complete business related projects where students had to create a business model that focused on the Hispanic/ Latinx demographic. She wanted to talk about her background to people, but not in a transactional style. Through these conversations and experiences she has learned to share her culture and find a space on campus.

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Moreno has served as the treasurer and the vice president for UNIDOS. She has a community now, however, her first college experience/years she did not feel like she fit in. Through her involvement she was able to help create a community for other Latinx students. Moreno stated, “I have noticed that many Latinx students have transferred due to lack of community building from Miami, I think there should be more standards in those multicultural groups to show that they are meeting both goals and students needs and creating a community.”

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