Who We Are
The SOMOS Latinx Program, established in 2023, is a campus-wide program for entering Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee students who self-identify as Latinx and/or Hispanic. Through this initiative, we ignite the passion and talents of Latinx and Hispanic students, support and honor their collective backgrounds, and help them create a solid foundation to navigate life at Berklee and beyond.
What does Latinx mean?
Latinx is a gender-neutral term adopted around 2004 and refers to people of Latin American origin or descent. The term moves away from the masculine bias of “Latinos” for plural and, over the years, has been used in place of the traditional term “Hispanic,” which often erases indigenous and African populations.
The community of people from Latin American countries and heritage congregates multiple ethnicities, nationalities, races, beliefs, and gender identities and expressions, so Berklee has chosen to adopt this term to embrace this vibrancy and make space for all backgrounds and experiences.
What We Do
Entering Student Pre-Orientation Program
Students' Berklee journey begins with the SOMOS Latinx Pre-Orientation, held each prior to the start of the college-wide fall student orientation. This program features sessions ranging from social and cultural topics to performance and community-building activities, always aiming to strengthen students’ understanding of themselves within Latinx and Hispanic traditions.
Academic Year Programs and Events
SOMOS Latinx provides multicultural and intercultural programming that celebrates the Latinx/Hispanic diaspora's contributions to Berklee and the arts while helping students achieve their personal, academic, and artistic goals. Each semester, students have the opportunity to engage in workshops with our campus partners like the Berklee Bridge (Success Advising, Career Center, Health and Wellness, and more), social enhancing opportunities like community dinners, field trips, and performing events.
Research and Assessment
The 2022–2023 Berklee Fact Sheet shows us that over 17 percent of domestic students and 13 percent of international students at Berklee identify as Latinx and/or Hispanic. However, the current retention and graduation rates for Latinx and/or Hispanic students lag when compared to their white peers.
To bridge this gap, we track the academic outcomes of students who participate in SOMOS Latinx and examine the relationship between participation in SOMOS Latinx with course grades, retention, and graduation rates.