1st Latinos student summit to celebrate culture, voice

Photo courtesy of United Way of Delaware.

An upcoming Latinos Unidos Student Summit is designed to bring those students together to empower them and to celebrate their culture and student voice.

The Saturday, Sept. 16 event, sponsored by the United Way of Delaware, will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Hodgson Vo-Tech High School in Newark.

The summit is meant to prepare, train, re-fuel and uplift students and the adults that support them. 

During the summit, students will learn why it’s important to use their voice and how to do it in a way that catalyzes change for the better.

Las Américas ASPIRA Academy students are looking forward to the summit, said Margie López Waite, chief executive officer.

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Her Newark charter school serves  71.22% Hispanic or Latino students and some of them were on the summit’s planning committee.

“The Latino Unidos Student Summit is a great example of the ASPIRA process of awareness, analysis and action,” López Waite said. “A student was aware of a youth conference, analyzed the possibility of creating an event for Hispanic students and took action to make a change.”

She said it’s a prime example of ASPIRA’s mission to empower Hispanic youth to be leaders and agents of change.

The top three schools in the state with the most students at the Latinos Unidos Student Summit will win a cash prize.

A fashion show will start the day, followed by keynote speaker Rony Baltazar-Lopez,

director of policy and communications for the Delaware Department of State.

After a lunch and fellowship, the attendees will break off into workshop sessions, which include discussions about: immigration and laws; mental health and generational trauma; sexualization of Hispanic women and machismo; college application and funding process for first generation students; and dance and cultural traditions.

“I admire United Way of Delaware’s work and I hope they have a wonderful summit,” said Jose Matthews, president of the Red Clay Consolidated School District Board of Education. `

To volunteer for the summit, or to register to attend, click here.

Jarek Rutz

Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.

Jarek can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at (215) 450-9982. Follow him on Twitter @jarekrutz and on LinkedIn.