LEAD.Latinoamérica

​

​

ABOUT US

​

The Latino Young Leaders in Advocacy Program (LEAD.Latinoamérica) is an immersive ten-day Latino student leadership program and service trip in Latin America. Every year, LEAD.Latinoamérica convenes ten Latino high school students for a groundbreaking initiative to identify and address the similarities and disparities among the various Latino communities throughout the US. This program was founded in response to the fragmented advocacy efforts of the geographically and culturally distinct Latino subpopulations within this country, and the cultural tensions that inhibit Latino unity and collaborative advocacy for social change. LEAD.Latinoamérica participants will take a lead role in bridging these communities, engaging in an intercultural experience to create a more unified voice and vision for the Latino community.

 

Each participant will be selected on the basis of their leadership potential and commitment to community advocacy, recommended by those they have impacted or inspired, be they community members, educators, local leaders, or organizations. Two students will be selected from five regions designated by a central US city - Miami, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Antonio. This geographical diversity will allow students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the Latino experience in the United States, each city renowned for its Latino heritage yet culturally distinct from its counterparts.

 

The program will consist of three components. First, students will participate in workshops, seminars, and in-depth discussions on topics in Latin American history, culture, identity, and politics, as they relate to Latinos in the United States and the global Latino community, which includes those in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. As they strengthen their grasp of contemporary issues and reshape their Latino identity, students will refine their leadership skills and devise new strategies to address the needs of their immediate and newly embraced communities, under the guidance of accomplished leaders in community advocacy.

 

Second, students will engage in service and substantive discourse with the local community as volunteers with a community-led service project. Every day, students will handle tasks and responsibilities crucial to the completion of this project under the direction of a local project supervisor. This project, requested and directed by the community, will afford students the chance to develop a transcontinental Latino identity, expanding their cultural bond to include not only Latinos across the country, but throughout all Latin America.

 

Finally, LEAD.Latinoamérica is thoroughly committed to students’ long-term academic and professional success. To ensure they apply and refine the skills they learned while abroad, students will coordinate local service projects in their own communities with ongoing support and guidance from LEAD.Latinoamérica staff. In addition, LEAD.Latinoamérica will provide mentorship and direct services to assist students throughout their entire college application process. Lastly, for those interested, LEAD.Latinoamérica will utilize its network to secure a summer internship for interested students, which they will begin when they return to the United States.

 

Upon completion of this program, students will be equipped with novel approaches to persistent issues in the local, national, and global Latino community, primed to lead and advocate for social change as it relates to people of all backgrounds.

 

PROGRAM GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

 

LEAD.Latinoamérica believes strongly in gauging students’ measurable success. To that end, LEAD.Latinoamérica maintains the following program goals for each student:

 

• Complete community-led service project on site

• Complete community-led US regional service project

• Secure summer internship for interested students

• Ensure students continue their pursuit of higher education after high school

 

LEAD.Latinoamérica strives to align these goals to broader program objectives, which reflect the fundamental vision and values upon which LEAD.Latinoamérica was founded. These objectives are:

 

• Shift dialogue within the Latino community, delving deeper into the overlapping and differing advocacy efforts and challenges of every Latino community. 

• Share these insights with the broader Latino community to prompt novel discussions on our shared Latino identity, our cultural and geographical diversity, and a refined vision for the Latino community. 

• Afford opportunities for personal growth, academic support, and professional advancement for students with an abundance of potential but lacking in the resources that promote students’ success.

• Foster current and future social change initiatives developed and implemented by LEAD.Latinoamérica participants.

• Carefully monitor the physical and emotional well-being of each participant by creating an environment of respect among participants and the communities we work with, and maintaining an efficient network of health care professionals, and trained staff attuned to the needs of participants, parents, and all involved with LEAD.Latinoamérica.

​

​