Today's youth are tomorrow's doctors, lawyers and teachers. And Latino leaders want to motivate those students to be the next responsible and educated leaders for future generations.
"They just need to be pointed in the right direction," said Fran Aguilar, director of San Joaquin County WorkNet and president of the San Joaquin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
San Joaquin County mirrors the diversity of California, the largest minority group being Latino (more than 30 percent).
With diversity comes challenges, as some minority groups generally have more socioeconomic barriers, ranging from low academic achievement to gang-risk factors.
Motivational events are one way community leaders are trying to reach and inspire youth to refrain from destructive behavior, stay in school, be productive, make good decisions and keep striving.
"We really wanted these students to know what the opportunities are," said Aguilar, who was part of organizing the local League of United Latin American Citizens' Youth Leadership Conference, held earlier this month at San Joaquin Delta College.
Considering that these challenges are fixable, Aguilar said, the county is rather fortunate to have a large youth population to replace baby boomers who are beginning to leave the work force. "All we need to do is focus on educating those individuals," Aguilar said.
The conference followed another youth empowerment summit in October, held by an organization known as ESPINO. That event focused on keeping youth out of prison.
Other such motivational conferences include:
» Tracy Hispanic Business Group holds an annual youth gathering in partnership with Tracy Unified School District.
» San Joaquin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce collaborates with University of the Pacific on an annual financial aid and college workshop event.
» Jose Hernandez Reaching for the Stars Foundation also puts on a youth conference that promotes science, technology, engineering and math careers.
The most recent youth leadership conference drew about 1,200 students from throughout San Joaquin County. Many were chosen for participation by their counselors and teachers.
The conference featured an array of workshops that not only explored everyday personal issues but also weaved those topics into career and educational workshops.
Community professionals led presentations about their careers. There were discussions about preventing teen pregnancies, healthy interpersonal relationships, domestic violence, saying no to drugs, money management and the consequences of crime.
"Who wants to be a dropout and only make $27,000 a year?" Aguilar asked the students. "Who wants to have a master's degree and earn maybe over $71,000 a year?"
That answer was clear when the crowd cheered for the last question.
"I think it was great," said 16-year-old Isela Valentin. "It just make me want to go further than I wanted to before."
Valentin, whose parents are farm workers, said she plans to be the first in her family to graduate from high school and go to college. "I want to go as far as possible so I can help my family," said Valentin, an Edison High School junior.
Conference keynote speaker Maria Teresa Hernandez, a public health researcher at University of California, Berkeley, talked about the shortage of Latinos in the health and medicine industries.
Even though 30 percent of the state's population is Latino, less than 5 percent work in the health field, she said. "The people who fill those shortages are you."
Latinos are filling lower-end jobs, and that's wasted potential, she said.
Leopoldo Nuno, 15, was also encouraged by the messages from Hernandez and Aguilar.
Nuno, who aspires to be an automobile engineer, said his family recently migrated from Mexico so that he and his siblings can have a good education.
"Aprendi a no rendirme para alcanzar mis metas," said Nuno, a sophomore at Escalon High School.
"I learned to not give up in order to reach my goals."
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