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News Release

Last modified: Monday, December 15, 2008

IU invites presenters to submit workshop proposals for annual Latino conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 15, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana Latina/o Leadership Conference committee is inviting Indiana University student organizations and college and high school students across the state to participate in workshops or to submit papers for its 10th annual conference in 2009.

The committee is seeking proposals for workshops related to the theme, "Sleeping Giant? From Invisible to Invincible." The conference will be Saturday, Feb. 28, in the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Campus Center. This is the second year the IU Bloomington students have worked together with other students across the state. This year's conference is being organized by students at IU Bloomington, IUPUI and Ivy Tech Community College.

The mission of the conference is to celebrate the uniqueness of Latina/o students in a forum organized by students for other students. The forum seeks to cultivate the exchange of ideas, values and beliefs in order to promote scholarship, leadership development and empowerment of Indiana's college and high school Latinas/os.

This year's conference will celebrate the leaders of the future, as well as those from the past who have served as inspiration for students. Last year, more than 500 students attended the conference, and organizers are hoping to attract even more people.

High school students who attend can interact with college students and spend their time learning about how to prepare for college and why it's so important to earn a higher education degree. Representatives from Indiana colleges will be available to answer students' questions at booths.

College students will learn how to be good leaders and how to work with people in a professional setting as well as participate in discussions about current events. Last year, college students listened to presentations on the importance of voting and how voting can impact the Latina/o community.

"This is the only student-planned conference of its kind, and we are inviting others to be a part of it," said Javier Barrera, an IUPUI student and workshops co-chair for the conference. "We are excited about this year's conference and in celebration of its 10th anniversary, we hope to make this the largest conference yet in the heart of the state in Indianapolis."

In addition to workshops, students can elect to volunteer at the conference to help boost their resume. The conference committee is looking for volunteers to help set-up/cleanup, assist at the registration table, introduce workshop presenters and perform other miscellaneous tasks throughout the day. Anyone interested can send an e-mail to iulec@indiana.edu.

Proposals must be postmarked by Jan. 24 in order to be reviewed by the committee. Each group or person submitting a proposal will receive notification to participate no later than Feb. 9. Workshops and presentations must be one hour in length and should be relevant to Latino high school or college students and serve to promote education, leadership, social awareness or culturally relevant information. The workshops should have some relation to this year's theme. Additional information about the requirements for the proposals may be found online at https://www.iupui.edu/~latinosa/illc/index.html.

Proposals can be submitted online at https://www.iupui.edu/~latinosa/illc/workshops_papers.html.

Any high school or college students who are interested in attending may register now online at https://www.iupui.edu/~latinosa/illc. The cost to attend is $10 per person.

Additional questions can be directed to the committee via e-mail at iulec@indiana.edu or by phone at 812-855-0174.

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