101 Hispanic Students Attend Central Valley Hispanic Youth Symposium
Hispanic College Fund’s Leading Program Builds Student Confidence, Foundations for Academic and Professional Success
FRESNO, CA (August 11, 2009) – More than 100 Central Valley area students gathered on the campus of Fresno State this past week for the fourth Central Valley Hispanic Youth Symposium, hosted by the Hispanic College Fund in partnership with the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium. During the four-day, three-night college access program, students participated in workshops and activities designed to build their college knowledge and self-confidence, ensuring that they will have both the skills and motivation to successfully pursue a college career.
Exit surveys from the program reveal that more then 98 percent of student attendees now plan to attend college.
More than 130 volunteers from the Central Valley contributed to the success of this year’s Hispanic Youth Symposium. Many volunteers helped to coordinate the logistics of the program, while others served as Hispanic Heroes – mentors for the students attending the symposium.
“It was wonderful for me to see how the students grew over the course of the symposium," said Jenny Robledo, the Director of the Educational Talent Search Program at California State University - Fresno, who co-chaired the Hispanic Youth Symposium talent competition this year. "I saw them on the first day and they were kind of subdued, but by the talent show, they all had signs for each other, they were all cheering for each other. It was just such a supportive group."
The attendees of the symposium will now be enrolled in the Hispanic Youth Institute, which provides year-round programming to increase students’ college knowledge and help them maintain progress towards academic and professional success. The Hispanic Youth Institute also serves as a support system for students’ families by involving them in the college admissions process through regular workshops and outreach. In September, the Hispanic College Fund will launch a new comprehensive Web resource to support the curriculum of the Hispanic Youth Institute and make it available to students outside of symposium regions.
Founded in 2004, the Hispanic Youth Symposium currently serves six cities and 1,600 students across the United States. Of the more than 1,000 alumni of the program, 75 percent have gone on to successfully graduate from college and 75 percent of those students have majored in STEM or business-related fields.
The Central Valley Hispanic Youth Symposium was sponsored by Bank of America, Kaiser Permanente, Southwest Airlines, the San Francisco Foundation, Wells Fargo, National Nuclear Security Administration, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, University of Phoenix Foundation, El Monterey/Ruiz Foods, Union Bank, Allright Diversified Services, United States Department of Agriculture, California State University- Fresno, Google, Kaplan K12 Learning Services, and San Francisco Hispanic Affairs Advisory Council.
Community partners include the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium.
To learn more about the Central Valley Hispanic Youth Symposium, please visit: http://www.hispanicyouth.org/symposium-central-valley.
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About the Hispanic College Fund
Founded in 1993, the Hispanic College Fund is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., with a mission to develop the next generation of Hispanic professionals. For 15 years, the Hispanic College Fund has provided educational, scholarship, and mentoring programs to students throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, establishing a career pipeline of talented and career-driven Hispanics who are trained in the fields of business, science, technology, engineering, and math.
The Hispanic College Fund has an annual budget of $6 million with 20 full-time employees. In 2006, the Hispanic College Fund received the Brillante award for “Nonprofit of the Year” from the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, and in 2007 was recognized by USA Today as one of the nation’s top 25 charities.