300 attend Latino conference

Michelle Ma
Citizen Correspondent

Nearly 300 students from several local high schools attended the 3rd Annual Latino Youth Leadership Conference on Friday, March 27. The event was held on the Coastline College campus in Garden Grove and was developed three years ago by the college in partnership with the Orange County chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

Students in attendance hailed from Costa Mesa High School, Westminster High School, Lincoln Continuation School, Garden Grove High School, Fountain Valley High School, Huntington Beach High School, Rancho Alamitos High School, Corona Del Mar High School, OC Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center, Newport Mesa Early College High School, and Fullerton ACCESS-OCDE.

The event was kicked-off by a general session with keynote speaker Carlos Palomino, a former world-champion boxer. Carlos explained to the teens why it was important for him to get a degree. “I always knew that if I got a title [in boxing], someday I could lose that title,” he said. “But, if I got a college degree, that’s something no one could ever take away from me.” What drove Carlos to succeed? “When people told me ‘no,’ I would use that as motivation to prove them wrong,” he said.

He also shared a comical story about how he got his start in the world of boxing. He used to live in Tijuana and shined shoes as a kid for 10 cents a shoe shine. “My dad would tell me, ‘Don’t come home until you have five dollars!’,” Carlos remembered. At the time, a lot of sailors were coming to Tijuana in the evenings and on weekends “and all the kids in the area would fight it out to get to do the shoe shines,” he said. “Guess what...I never lost a [fight for a] shoe shine!” That, Carlos explained, is where his boxing training began.

After the general session, the students retreated to breakout sessions to focus in on a variety of topics developed to enhanced their leadership potential. One topic, Ethics in the media, was hosted by journalist of “Ask a Mexican” fame Gustavo Arellano and film maker Alfredo Lugo. The session analyzed how Latinos have been depicted in TV and film media and how that has perpetuated stereotypes of Latinos.

Further information on the Latino Youth Leadership Conference can be found at www.coastline.edu/lyc.

Additional photos from the event can be found at: https://picasaweb.google.com/CoastlineCollege/LatinoYouthLeadershipConference2009