Greetings!

Hello everyone! I'm Jessica Covarrubias and I am working on several programs with the National Hispanic Institute. I will be working with high school freshman in a program called Young Leaders Conference, sophomores in a program called the Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session, and with juniors in a program called Collegiate World Series.

This past week was my first week working with the National Hispanic Institute (NHI) and I began working with the Young Leaders Conference. Since I am in Chicago, I was assigned the task of preparing the Chicago team for the initial conference in July. As a means of preparation for the Young Leaders Conference, the coordinators (about 6) meet with the students everyday during the week at different locations and practice different types of oral communication skills. We usually meet at one of the coordinator's house. This past week I got to know the 20 Chicago freshman that make up the Chicago team. The majority of the week's focus was on mock trials and the topics were about Latinos in higher education. The students were to use actual evidence from different organizations that focus on the promotion of Latinos in higher education. Since the majority of the students are shy, it was a challenge to try and have them speak up, especially with conviction. We are slowly getting there! For this week, I will continue preparation with the freshman, but then I must briefly break for a week to work with the sophomores!