Hispanic Association of Computing College Students Takes Off at NJIT

The Hispanic Association of Computing College Students (HACCS) at NJIT’s Ying Wu College of Computing has taken off and is already seeing a great turnout in their inaugural meetings. 

This Hispanic-oriented club seeks to cater to the needs of Hispanic computing students and create a group that will allow them to support each other with computing coursework and make ties that create a homelike atmosphere at NJIT.

Michelle Bautista ’24, the president of HACCS, feels proud to take on the responsibility of starting this club from the ground up, but gives special thanks to James Geller, professor and interim chair of the YWCC's Department of Data Science, who laid the groundwork.

Bautista, a web and information systems major, looks forward to the fall of 2023 when her club plans start rolling. There are already over 100 members in their Discord channel. “To finally have a place where you can kind of relate, talk about the issues at school that you're having with courses, and then also just feel more comfortable asking questions because we're all kind of in a similar boat.

“I feel like it helps you stay motivated, to keep coming to class, to keep going to campus even when you don't have to, to keep trying. It's really reassuring when you see other people that look like you because if you don't see people that look like you, you're prone to thinking like, ‘Why am I doing this?’” she said. “And when you have friends at home, that aren't studying, that aren't trying to pursue their education, you can say, ‘I could just go hang out with them. I could go be with them.’ So it’s very easy to slack.”

“In 2015 I became involved in Women in Computing at a major U.S. conference and I realized there was nothing for them at NJIT. So I came back and started WiCS, Graduate WiCS and an ACM-W chapter. We at CS also became [National Center for Women & Information Technology] members,” said Geller.

“Recently some of my friends outside of NJIT working for Women in Computing told me that the social isolation of Hispanic computing students is quite similar to that of female students,” he added. “So I sent a trial balloon email to Hispanic undergraduate CS students and I got 50+ responses in six hours.”

Geller highlighted that usually he doesn’t get responses from those sorts of emails. One of the first responders was Bautista, whom he knew from Women in Computing. He asked if she wanted to be the president of HACCS and since then, “she just took it and ran with it,” he said.

“In my 34 years at NJIT nothing I have done ever took off like this,” he noted, crediting Bautista's excellent organizing skills. 

Currently the club has a president, treasurer, vice president, secretary and public relations director. 

“This will only be the third Hispanic oriented club for NJIT,” said Bautista. “This will be great for NJIT because that way we're more welcoming to students. Every semester for every start of the year we have our Student Involvement Fair, and that’s a really big opportunity to show the new students and returning students what NJIT has to offer.”

Bautista, a Passaic, New Jersey native, has seen first-hand how NJIT’s Hispanic population has grown. “Right now I hear other Hispanics talk Spanish in my class, and prior to this year, I’ve never heard people speak Spanish,” she said. “It’s comforting, and you feel more welcomed.

“Hearing Spanish in the background was something I grew up with, and to finally have it here and mesh with my academic pursuits, it’s really nice.”

For fall 2022, students that identify as Black or Hispanic make up 10% and 30% of the freshman class, respectively, compared to 7.1% and 20% in 2012. 

With this club, I feel like you could have another anchor here.

In the works already is an affiliation with the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI), an NSF National INCLUDES Alliance. Bautista points out that their goals are very similar to HACCS. An eventual affiliation will provide benefits to HACCS such as working with Great Minds in STEM, which have their own conference. CAHSI also works with Google, which has their own Hispanic computing initiatives that could benefit NJIT students.

“We want to let computing students know that we're here, and that they’re welcomed to get involved,” said Bautista. “The club's primary goal is to provide college students with academic support, including study sessions and a focus on technical interview prep. We also aim to help students develop their skills in behavioral interviews and networking more effectively.”

If you want to get involved with HACCS, please join their Discord channel.