Contact at event:
Angela Acosta-Salazar, Puente Project-SoCal region coordinator,
Office (for contact prior to event): (909) 396-5424
Puente Project web site:
Note for journalists and photographers: To make prior arrangements for
student interviews, contact Cal State L.A.’s Public Affairs office or
Angela Acosta at the contacts listed above.
MEDIA ADVISORY
Ninth graders—from Anaheim to Whittier—to learn ‘Leadership Starts With Me’ at Puente Project’s conference
Workshops on power of voice, culture, identity, team-building, more
Saturday, March 14, 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m., at Cal State L.A.
Los Angeles, CA – More than 600 students from 16 Southern California high schools will be at California State University, Los Angeles on Saturday, March 14, for the Puente Project’s 9th Grade Student Leadership Conference. Representing high schools from Anaheim to Whittier, the ninth-graders will come together to experience this one-day motivational conference, themed “Leadership Starts With Me.”
At more than 20 leadership-building and mentoring workshops, the teens will learn about the power of voice, empowerment, culture and identity, making money work, healthy mind and body, and becoming cyber-smart. Other topics to be addressed include college planning, scholarships and financial aid, time management and goal setting. There will also be a parents workshop and several career panels.
The conference keynote speaker will be Michele Serros, author of Chicana Falsa—And Other Stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard and Honey Blonde Chica. Named by Newsweek as “One of the Top Young Women to Watch for in the New Century,” Serros has been a featured contributor for the Los Angeles Times and a commentator for the National Public Radio.
The registration and breakfast begin 8 a.m. at Cal State L.A.’s Main Walkway (near the Library), followed by a welcoming and opening session at 9 a.m. in the Golden Eagle Ballroom. Workshops are scheduled at several campus buildings. The program will conclude with remarks by Monica Garcia, board president of the Los Angeles Unified School District, at 3 p.m. in the Golden Eagle Ballroom.
For more about the 9th Grade Student Leadership Conference, call Angela Acosta-Salazar, Puente Project, at (562) 716-2112, or Marco Antonio UrÃas or Nadia Mendoza, Outreach and Recruitment office at Cal State L.A., (323) 343-3839.
Southern California High School Participants
Anaheim High School (Anaheim)
Blair High School (Pasadena)
California High School (Whittier)
Castle Park Senior HS (Chula Vista)
Century High School (Santa Ana)
Estancia High School (Costa Mesa)
Katella High School (Anaheim)
La Serna High School (Whittier)
Magnolia High School (Anaheim)
Marshall Fundamental High School (Pasadena)
Muir High School (Pasadena)
Norwalk High School (Norwalk)
Pasadena High School (Pasadena)
Pioneer High School (Whittier)
Roosevelt High School (Los Angeles)
Saddleback High School (Santa Ana)
Puente Project
Puente is a national-award winning academic program that for 25 years has improved the four-year college enrollment rates of California students from disadvantaged circumstances. Begun in 1981, Puente serves 32 high schools and 60 community colleges. The mission of the Puente Project is to increase the number of educationally disadvantaged students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn college degrees, and return to the community as mentors and leaders of future generations. Puente, which is open to all students, directly serves over 13,000 students per year.
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Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 205,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu