Last modified: Tuesday, January 16, 2007
President of U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute to keynote Men of Color Conference at IU on Feb. 3
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 16, 2007
Juan Andrade
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Juan Andrade, Jr., president of the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, will be the keynote speaker at the 2007 Men of Color Leadership Conference at Indiana University Bloomington on Saturday, Feb. 3.
The student-led conference is committed to uniting African American, Latino, Asian and Native American men throughout the country by providing a platform and a venue for effective dialogue and leadership development.
This will be the third such conference at IU, which continues to reach beyond the Bloomington campus to include student leaders, community members and educators from across Indiana and other states. Past participants have included students from other IU campuses, Ball State, Purdue and other universities across the state and two historically black colleges -- Morgan State University of Baltimore, Md., and Savannah State University in Georgia.
The conference will begin at 9 a.m. in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, 275 N. Jordan Ave. A series of workshops on building leadership, understanding self-image and improving cultural awareness will take place all morning and continue after lunch. The program will conclude around 2:30 p.m.
Andrade will speak at the luncheon that begins at 11:50 a.m. in the Grand Hall. The fee to attend the conference is $50. The fee includes all conference materials, the reception, the luncheon and refreshments. To register and for complete information, go to https://www.indiana.edu/~moc.
Among the topics the students will discuss, with the involvement of several IU faculty members, are immigration issues, media portrayals of men of color, coalition building, building relationships between men and women, and how underrepresented students can avoid threats posed by stereotypes. The Commission for the Status of Black Males also will give a report.
The Faculty and Staff for Student Excellence (FASE) Mentoring Program is presenting this conference with co-sponsorship from the Office of the Vice President for Institutional Development and Student Affairs, the Office of Academic Support and Diversity, the Office of Affirmative Action, Office of Admissions, Groups Student Support Services, School of Education, 21st Century Scholars Program, the Dean of Students, the City of Bloomington and the Bloomington Visitors Bureau.
About Juan Andrade, Jr:
The son of migrant farm workers, Andrade worked alongside his family in the fields at age 4. A self-described quintessential learner, Andrade has earned five college degrees in education. As a civics teacher just out of college, Andrade was arrested in his home state of Texas for teaching his students about the fundamentals of American democracy in his native tongue, Spanish, which then was a violation of state law. That early injustice helped to spark his life-long crusade for Hispanic-American civil rights.
For his lifetime service, Andrade received one of the United States' highest civilian honors, the President's Citizens Medal, from President Bill Clinton in January 2001, along with Hank Aaron and Muhammad Ali. In his presentation of the medal, Clinton expressed admiration for Andrade's courage, promotion of civic participation and leadership development and dedication to civil rights.
He founded and is president of the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, which has trained more than 200,000 current and future leaders, registered more than 2 million new voters and published 425 studies on Hispanic demographics since 1982. It sponsors the largest Latino leadership conference in the nation.
A native of Brownwood, Texas, he has earned five college degrees from Howard Payne University, Antioch College, Northern Illinois University and Loyola University.
Andrade has been a regular columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and a political commentator for WLS-TV, Chicago's ABC affiliate, and WGN-Radio. He has been recognized three times as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in America. He was inducted into the Society of Life Models by OMNI Youth Services for his work in promoting education and leadership development for high school and college students.
In 2006, he received the Excellence in Education award from the Latino Caucus of the National Association of School Board Members and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In addition to his work in the United States, he has participated in democratization efforts in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and Haiti.
