Riverhead Students Attend 25th Annual Angelo Del Toro Puerto Rican/ Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute

Students Ismael Bajaña Salguero and Jean Carlos Pulla Velecela represented Riverhead High School at the 25th Annual Angelo Del Toro Puerto Rican/ Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute in Albany earlier last month.

Over the course of three days, they participated in a variety of team building activities and workshops with 200 other outstanding Hispanic students from across New York State.

The main goals of this institute were:

• To develop leadership skills in Latino/Hispanic Youth;
• To create opportunities for Latino/Hispanic students to interact with positive role models such as Puerto Rican/Latino elected officials, educators, and business leaders;
• To create partnerships and conversations among educators, business leaders and students, and
• To develop an in depth knowledge of the state legislative process.

The institute began with a mock assembly where the students sat in the seat of their assemblyperson and argued, based on their representative’s viewpoint, for or against a number of actual bills that are making their way through the assembly.

“We were debating bills that affect our community and especially the immigrant community,” Salguero said. “One of the bills provided help to non-English speaking parents; a second bill was about implementing foreign language classes in elementary school. Another bill proposed getting NYS out of the ‘race to the top ‘ program. Yet another bill addressed racial profiling.”

Students are selected after a rigorous application process, including three training sessions in this case on Long Island before they can attend.

Both students interviewed local Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo before leaving for the assembly and are charged with voting in a manner advocated by the assemblyperson they are representing.

“Let me say that it was an honor to represent not only Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo but to also represent the Riverhead and Latino community,” Salguero said. “It’s an experience that changed my point of view towards politics. I think everyone should do it.”

Students were able to meet and interact with various state assembly members including Phil Ramos (Assembly Dist. 6), Marcos Crespo (Assembly Dist. 85) and Speaker of the House Carl Heastie (Assembly Dist. 83).

Photos courtesy of Riverhead Central School District

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