Hispanics told to learn all they can

The speaker said Hispanics are still absent in
corporate boardrooms.

By SEAN BARRON

VINDICATOR CORESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — Hispanics have made great strides when it comes to graduating from high school, but more needs to be done to help reverse a 45-percent dropout rate among Ohio’s Hispanic students.

That was a key message Henry Guzman brought up in a lecture Friday in the Chestnut Room of Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center.

“Hispanics must take every opportunity to educate themselves so we can develop more leaders for our community — leaders who intimately understand our heritage and who will work every day to help us overcome the challenges that face our community,” said Guzman, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety and formerly of Youngstown.

Guzman’s lecture “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way,” focused on gains made by the Hispanic community and challenges they face.

Poverty, low achievement, recent immigration and language barriers were the core reasons the graduation numbers “are not where they should be,” he said.

There need to be closer parent-school relationships, remedial and other help for children in single-family homes and more use of “nontraditional ways to make education exciting for kids,” Guzman said.

Hispanics also have faced difficulties in other areas, such as disaster preparedness, Guzman noted.

What’s being done

To correct that problem, he continued, the state public safety department led an effort to include local jurisdictions and emergency-response teams in reaching out to multicultural communities.

Guzman praised officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for bringing to Findlay and other areas hard-hit by last month’s flooding bilingual staff to provide multicultural assistance.

Even though more Hispanics are serving at all levels of government, they are still under-represented in politics and in high corporate positions, he noted.

Hispanics represent 12 percent of the U.S population but only 1 percent of elected officials, he added.

“In corporate America, despite the Hispanic community's growing economic clout, Hispanics remain absent from corporate boardrooms,” he said.

In closing, Guzman urged his audience of a few hundred to learn as much as possible about the culture and heritage of diverse communities.

The program, sponsored by Home Savings as well as YSU’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity and Office of the Provost, is part of Hispanic Heritage Month, which began Sept. 15 and goes to Oct. 15.

Sept. 15 marked the independence of Latin nations Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Friday’s program also included awards being given to 21 young people for their academic achievements, community work and leadership abilities.

There was a flag ceremony, a dance performance by Raices Latina and a memorial tribute to Dr. Robert K. Herbert, YSU’s provost who drowned while vacationing in Costa Rica with his family.