What is SOLES?

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 9,000 student members within 306 chapters nationwide. Among these chapters, UCLA has the honor of being named "National Outstanding 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 "Strengthening foundations, expanding horizons." It conveys the plan of action UCLA-SOLES will take in areas of education, community service, and networking. Focusing on recruitment and retention of members, and to encourage and mentor those motivated enough to become future leaders of SOLES, is one of our main goals for this year. The education that our members will receive will provide them the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed as professionals. By sharing those experiences with the younger generations and being a role model through our community service events, we will create a strong base to enhance and achieve the potential of Latinos in engineering, science, and technology. Finally, by diversifying and interacting with other Latino organizations on campus that share our heritage, interests, and goals, we will form well rounded individuals that will continue to grow, expand, and continuously set new goals to achieve new levels of success. 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.