This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend the inaugural 2007 Latino Upstate Summit in Buffalo, New York. I was able to attend workshops that focused on various issues affecting the Latino population in New York State. The workshops ranged from Bilingual education to Gang and Youth violence to the voting process.
Also at the event I was able to hear the keynote address of Dr. Manuel Rivera, Deputy Secretary of Education for New York State. Dr. Rivera made some interesting and great comments during his keynote. He focused on items that he is going to implement or have already implemented, items such as the Schools Contract for Excellence. He also focused on changing funding to schools so that institutions that have a higher need will receive the funding they are rightly due.
Another major theme for the summit was education. What other arena affects everything else in society, but education. Latino's like many other minorities are falling behind their Caucasian counterparts. Some of Dr. Rivera's comments focused on that along with some of the workshops.
The event was the first of it's kind created to unite the Latino communities across New York State. I must commend the board of directors and everyone responsible for creating the event. It must start somewhere and I think they are off to a great start. The environment was very professional and great for networking and forming connections.
I am looking forward to next year's Latino Summit which is scheduled to be located in Rochester, New York.
¡Viviendo el Sueño! (Living the Dream!)
Mr. Anibal Soler, Jr.
http://www.anibalsoler.com
http://anibalsoler.blogspot.com
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