Hispanic Men’s Leaders Conference Hosted In South Huntington

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — The Hispanic Men’s Leaders Conference was held at Walt Whitman High School last Tuesday, the South Huntington School District announced. The conference's purpose was to prove to immigrant students all kinds of success is possible.

The high school’s male ninth and 10th grade immigrant students were invited to the interactive event for presentations, discussions, and activities focused on the challenges they face. The purpose, the district said, is to get to these students early in their high school years to provide them with the inspiration, support and tools they need to continue on a path towards graduation and go on to attend college.

"If you look at our dropout rates, a lot of them are our immigrant students because they have to deal with so many issues," Assistant Principal Scott Muller said in a news release. "If we can inspire them early to understand that it's worth working hard here, because you can go to college and establish a career, then we've done our job."

Hispanic men who have been successful in all walks of life were invited to the conference to share their experiences with the students in the hopes of inspiring those attending to continue on their educational path. All speakers were bilingual, and the entire conference was conducted in Spanish.

Speakers included a recent Whitman graduate who talked about what it’s like to now be studying at SUNY Stony Brook, as well as proven leaders in the fields of government, law, education, politics, religion, entrepreneurship, and specialized trades.

Fernando Camacho, acting Suffolk County Supreme Court justice, was the keynote speaker.

The messages were about choices and possibilities.

"When they look at some of these speakers, some of these speakers are immigrants, or they're the children of immigrants," Muller said. "They're all Hispanic, Latino. They're all bilingual. And it's to give them that kind of positive role model and to say, if he did it, I can do it."

A similar Women Leaders Conference was held earlier this year. Organizers hold separate conferences for young Latino men and women because they say there are different issues in terms of the kind of impediments and obstacles that immigrant boys and girls face, and there is a need to address them more directly, according to the school district.