Empowering young Hispanic students for personal and professional success beyond degree attainment
Austin, TX – The Hispanic Scholarship Consortium (HSC) will host its annual Scholar Leadership Conference on August 3–5, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel Austin. The conference aims to empower scholars to enter the workforce as leaders upon degree attainment. Throughout the conference, 70 Austin-area community leaders and professionals will be on hand to provide a wealth of training and knowledge in the areas of leadership skills enhancement, effective networking practices, building a personal brand, and most important, seeding philanthropy to over 100 Hispanic students, 66% of which are first generation college students.
Marisa Limón, M.Ed., Assistant Director of Development at HSC points out that, “HSC is truly more than a scholarship program. We’re dedicated to preparing a leadership pool of college graduates ready to tackle the demands of an ever-changing workforce while maintaining a commitment to the communities in which they live.” To that end, this year’s conference includes a Community Engagement Experience where HSC scholars will work with six local non-profits to analyze a community challenge and work collaboratively to develop possible solutions. This project will allow scholars to realize their potential as leaders who will achieve personal and professional success all the while serving their community. Limón says, “Seeding philanthropy has been a core pillar of HSC since its inception, and this community engagement project has really brought living philanthropically to a new level. Our non-profit partners for this project have been welcoming, easy to work with and eager to bring these students on board.”
One of the projects involves HSC scholars, El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission and volunteers from Hispanics in Partnership at Applied Materials. Other efforts includes working in the Austin Habitat for Humanity Re-Store, the Goodwill’s Greenworks program, a visit to help clean and maintain Posada Esperanza, work with Latinitas Magazine and serving lunch with Caritas of Austin.
The conference will culminate in student presentations featuring the work HSC scholars completed along with their proposed solutions. Each team of scholars has will have the chance to share their learning with representatives of Latinitas Magazine for documentation, and we look forward to some powerful impact statements produced by the student teams. HSC is “Excited to see the results of this project in the immediate future and much further down the line as these students give back to the local community that provided them with so much.”
For additional information on the 2010 HSC Scholar Leadership Conference, please contact Laura Duran at [email protected] / 512.589.4033.
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