The National Hispanic Cultural Center is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the 11th Annual Student Leadership Institute (SLI 2019).

SLI will take place Friday, November 15, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. The institute is part of La Cosecha Dual Language Conference and will bring together over 240 linguistically and culturally diverse students from around the country to focus on issues of identity, leadership, and the development of an asset-based perspective related to their diverse backgrounds.

Gathering the Truths of our Past…
Embracing our Present…
Preparing our Future!

MISSION
The mission of the DLeNM Student Leadership Institute is to support linguistically and culturally diverse youth to:

• embrace language, culture, and history as a source of power and responsibility;
• embrace their power and responsibility as an invitation to lead; and to
• embrace their invitation to lead as an incentive to build partnerships with each other as a means of preparing themselves for a future of advocacy and the use of power for the betterment of our diverse communities.

DESCRIPTION
SLI 2019 will begin with students reflecting and working together to define their roles for the day and the work to which they are committing.  Students will then attend workshop sessions in the morning and after lunch. Some workshops will be student-led and all will support participants to reflect on ways to affect positive change in their communities.

Tertulias (brief round-table conversations) will take place in the afternoon and create a space where adult leaders will host intimate conversations about their own linguistic and cultural background and how their diverse experiences have helped them in their lives and along their career paths. They are intended to be informal and are a great way for adults to engage and briefly mentor our student leaders.

SLI truly is an investment in our collective future that has the potential to be a benchmark moment in the minds of each of the participating students.  As a networking opportunity for our future leaders, it ensures that our young people form strong and meaningful peer relationships at a young age, recognize assets, and develop a sense of responsibility, commitment, and concern for one another.