The Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists (SOLES) was created in 1978 to address the low number of Latino students enrolled and succeeding in four-year universities, especially in engineering and science. Its purpose was and continues to be to provide for the academic, professional, and personal development of the Latino student community. Established as a student chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), SOLES has become a leading chapter within an organization whose membership hosts over 6,000 student members within 200 chapters nationwide. Among these chapters, UCLA has the honor of being named “National Outstanding Large Chapter of the Year” five times within the last decade. Our success and our commitment to our goals has allowed us to become one of the most active and well-respected organizations, both within the UCLA campus as well as in the SHPE community.
Every year SOLES’ vision changes according to the membership need. This year’s theme is “Empowering our generations”. It conveys the plan of action UCLA-SOLES will take in areas of education (educating our members), community service (helping the younger generation to become motivated to seek a higher education in the fields of science and engineering), and networking (to provide the older generation with well rounded individuals to help their companies succeed). SOLES continues to provide effective programs for our membership and the community through our many years of experience, but that alone is not enough; for SOLES to continue to grow, expand, and improve, we must continuously set new goals and implement new innovative programs. With this attitude, there is no limit to the level of success we can achieve. In this spirit of progress and members past, we have created new or re-engineered existing programs while hopefully adding that special ambiance, involvement, and awareness that our earlier chapters were known for.