El Centro Celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month
With National Hispanic Heritage Month observed from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, El Centro, a bilingual and peer mentor and tutoring center at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), offers a variety […]
Bobby Verdugo & Yoli Ríos Bilingual Peer Mentor and Tutoring Center
Since its inception in 2016, The Bobby Verdugo and Yoli Ríos Bilingual Peer Mentor and Tutoring Center has quickly become a key component of the EKU experience. More commonly referred to as “El Centro,” we started as a room in McCreary Hall, but it has upgraded and relocated to a more centralized campus location, the Crabbe Library basement.
Bobby Verdugo & Yoli Ríos
“El Centro” was named after Chicano/a civil rights activists Bobby Lee Verdugo and Yoli Ríos. In 1968, both individuals were key organizers of the East L.A. Walkouts at five schools. Their advocacy spurred an education rights movement that successfully brought education reform and policy improvements to disenfranchised schools.
Related Student Organizations
We encourage students to review the diverse student organizations:
Services
Tutoring
El Centro offers bilingual tutoring and mentoring for students interested in multilingual and multicultural community building and scholarship. Tutoring is offered in a variety of languages including Spanish, German, Japanese, etc. Additionally, El Centro also offers tutoring in subject areas such as social work, public health, sciences, anthropology, sociology, etc.
El Centro provides a space to apply the skills learned in language and culture classes in real-world settings through volunteering or service-learning community engagement.
Mentoring
El Centro also offers mentoring services where students meet once a week with a peer mentor. Each student is assigned a mentor based on major, academic, or personal needs. Within each mentoring session, students can receive help with navigating college, class advising, schedule building, networking, interview skills, e-mail best practices, applications, essays, resumes, cover letters, scholarships, etc.
Study Spaces
El Centro offers four (4) group study rooms and a decompression room. Additionally, El Centro also houses a “Pequeña Biblioteca Latinx” (Small Latinx Library) This space is used as a group study room; however, students are welcome to check-out Spanish books from the small library for leisure reading.
FAQs
El Centro Events
News & Updates
Provost’s Faculty Internship Program Welcomes New Cohort
The Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) Provost’s Faculty Internship Program develops leadership skills and complements leadership endeavors among faculty by supporting individual development while assisting university-wide academic initiatives. Established by EKU […]
EKU Graduate Partners with PayPal to Help Latino Students at EKU
As a first-generation college student from a single-parent household of Latino heritage, Ivan Olivas found a sense of community and began to envision the exciting possibilities while being a student […]
Contact Information
Bobby Verdugo & Yoli Ríos Bilingual Peer Mentor and Tutoring Center
Crabbe Library
Room 103-A
859-622-2996