Celebrating Community and Connection During Hispanic Heritage Month
Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities. Across the campuses Follett serves, it also creates an opportunity to listen, learn, and find meaningful ways to engage with the students who walk through our doors every day.
At Indiana University, that connection is taking shape through collaboration.
This Hispanic Heritage Month, the Indiana University Bookstores are working alongside student organizations and campus partners, including La Casa/Latino Cultural Center, Latinos Unidos at Indiana University, La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc., and Gamma Phi Omega International Sorority, Inc. Together, these groups are helping shape how the bookstores celebrate the month, contributing their perspectives, participating in content and photography, and helping create experiences that reflect the students and communities they represent.
The goal is simple: create experiences that feel relevant to students and represent the community.
For Follett Market Leader Eric Amador, that work is also personal.
“As a Mexican American, this month holds a special significance for me,” Eric shared. “I was the first person in my family to pursue a college degree, and later, the first to pursue a master’s degree. Today, another generation of my family is pursuing higher education.”
For Eric, those experiences reinforce why representation and connection on campus matter.
“Every Latino student who walks across a graduation stage, leads an organization, makes a scientific breakthrough, builds a business, excels in athletics, or becomes the first in their family to do something creates a path that someone else can follow.”
Listening to Students and Bringing Their Voices In
At Indiana University, celebrating the community has meant going beyond simply recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month. The bookstore team has worked directly with students and campus organizations to help shape how the stores participate.
That approach puts student voices at the center of the work, creating opportunities for the bookstore team to listen, learn, and respond to what resonates with the campus community.
“Representation is more than who appears in our marketing,” Eric said. “It’s also about listening to our students, understanding their preferences, and creating experiences that speak to the communities we serve.”
That philosophy helped inspire a September 23 apparel and gifting promotion at Indiana University Bloomington and Indiana University Indianapolis. Student partners helped bring the campaign to life in a way that feels connected to the campus community rather than simply created for it.
A Campus Store That Reflects Its Community
Campus stores occupy a unique place within higher education. They are retail destinations, but they are also gathering places and visible expressions of campus identity. That creates an opportunity to make the store experience about more than products.
By building relationships with student organizations, cultural centers, and other campus partners, store teams can better understand the students they serve and create experiences that foster a sense of belonging.
For Eric, that is an important part of what makes the work meaningful.
“We seek to build bridges with the campuses and communities we serve, partnerships that go beyond merchandise and create meaningful connections with the students who walk through our doors.”
The work happening at Indiana University is one example of what those connections can look like: listening to students, inviting them into the process, and creating experiences alongside the communities being celebrated.
Celebrating the Communities We Serve
Across Follett, our stores serve students with different backgrounds, experiences, and stories. Hispanic Heritage Month gives us a meaningful moment to recognize the contributions of Hispanic and Latino students, faculty, staff, and communities while continuing to strengthen the relationships that help our stores better serve their campuses.
When students see themselves reflected in the places and experiences that make up campus life, those relationships grow stronger. This Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate those communities, the students creating new paths for those who follow, and the campus partners and Follett team members helping bring those experiences to life.