Launching a Legacy: Doris Silva Alvarado ’74 and Irma Ramirez ’74

Long before Dominican University became a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution, Doris Silva Alvarado ’74 and Irma Ramirez ’74 planted the seeds for growing the school’s diversity and establishing a place for belonging. 

The pair founded the Organization for the Progress of Latin American Students, the first club of its kind for students of Hispanic descent at then-Rosary College. The club lives on today as the Organization of Latin American Students (OLA).

“The purpose of forming it together was to promote more recruitment of Hispanic students and bring about awareness on campus of our cultures, since we were among the first Latinas there,” said Ramirez, the club’s first president and a retired school social worker. “We grew up in an era of the brown power movement, the Chicano movement. We felt an emerging sense of strength in our cultural identity, and we formed this organization to say, ‘Look, we’re important. We want the rest of the world and this campus to understand we’re here.’”

Most of all, the club provided a supportive place for Hispanic students, where members gathered to share their common experiences. Sr. Mary Clemente Davlin, OP, served as faculty sponsor.

Alvarado recalls the club being invited to give English lessons to children at Our Lady of Angels Parish in Humboldt Park. That experience, she says, sparked a desire in her to become a teacher, leading to a 37-year career in education. 

Looking at the campus today and meeting with current members of OLA—as they did during Reunion Weekend in June—Alvarado and Ramirez had to admit that their multi-tiered mission was fully recognized. 

“I was overjoyed to see so many Latino students happy to be there and wanting to hear how we felt about going here,” Alvarado shared. “Maybe they felt we opened the door for them.”

“I felt a great sense of pride knowing that Dominican University has made a commitment to increasing the number of its Latino students,” Ramirez added. “It made me feel that our initial goal worked!”