Sacramento City Unified School District and the Latino Student Advisory Committee strived to promote leadership and community involvement among Latino and Chicano high school students at the eight annual Chicano/Latino conference at Sacramento State.

“Many students are afraid to take a stand. We want them get involved and take leadership roles; not be afraid,” Yvonne Esquivel, Latino Student Advisory Chair, said.

Latino and Chicano students from Sacramento City Unified schools were invited to attend the event held Wednesday.

Each school decides which students will attend, Esquivel said, but she said she likes to focus on struggling students.

“We’ve had cases where struggling students have come and after attending our conference, made a turn-around,” Esquivel said.

“Before the conferences Kennedy High School, for example, had 100 Latino/Chicano students and only 23 graduated. Now, after the program, it jumped to 51 graduating students. And 10 of those went on to the university level,” Esquivel said.

The conference organized eight workshops ?” focused on engineering and the arts fields. Other workshops ?” such as leadership, occupation, and empowerment ?” were geared towards student opportunities and motivation.

Parents of these students also had workshops.

Parenting workshops were primarily a guide to helping their children succeed and helping parents make the right decision for their education.

The conference closed with a brief lunch and a motivational speaker.

“Students normally get tired at the end, but I wanted to make sure to bring in someone to wake them up and feel motivated after they leave,” Esquivel said.

With the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) beginning this year, the committee is making plans to further expand its organization to help students prepare and pass the exam.

Binde Rai can be reached at [email protected]