Nebraska Latino Youth Summit connects students with opportunities

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Students began showing up an hour before Thursday's Nebraska Latino Youth Summit started.

Once registered, they began taking seats in the La Vista Conference Center auditorium, or chatting at different vendor tables.

About 500 Hispanic high school students showed up to the 12th annual summit to network and learn about college and career opportunities.

Gov. Jim Pillen delivered the keynote speech and encouraged the students to continue living in and contributing to the state. Maria Arriaga, the executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Latino-Americans, was one of the organizers of the summit.

“This event is meant and created for that reason, to have representation, and for them to feel represented in the fact that they are able to see these Latinos doing important things across the state and beyond,” she said. “They will feel that they have a path to follow or an example or role model.”

The students ranged from sophomores to seniors. Jeremy Diaz Lopez was one of the first students to arrive with his group. He is a senior at Crete High School and an executive officer for his school’s Multicultural Union. He and his team organized for their club to attend the summit.

“We're more of a Hispanic school. So, we want to come and get the Hispanic children involved into like, different Hispanic things that are in Nebraska,” he explained. “My parents came from Guatemala. So, I feel like getting involved in these things could help me understand them more, or like, help me feel more Hispanic.”

Britney Alarcon Panzi and Jimena Zamora are Crete High School’s Multicultural Union’s vice president and president, respectively. They added they want to learn the skills to advocate for their communities to encourage them to vote, work toward higher education and feel pride in their culture.

“I feel like coming to these conferences helps us learn how to get them to communicate and learn new things too,” Alarcon Panzi said.

According to a study from the Pew Research Center, some 36% of Hispanic people in Nebraska were eligible to vote as of 2016. That’s compared to 78% of the eligibility of the state’s white population.

“I feel like this is a very good step and opportunity for a lot of our members to get a feel of college and look at all opportunities and to be proud,” Zamora added.

Vendors lined the hallways of the conference center for the students to interact with. Elizabeth Vazquez and Soledad Garcia manned the booth for Metropolitan Community College (MCC).

Vazquez said attending this event was personal for her. She graduated from MCC as a first-generation college student, graduated from the University of Nebraska, Omaha with a bachelor’s degree and is now working toward her master’s.

“It's so important to plant that seed," she said. "And representation matters. Kids need to see people who look like them, who have similar backgrounds to know ‘I can do that too.'"

According to the 2024 Nebraska Higher Education Progress Report from the state’s Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, compared to their white non-Hispanic and Asian classmates, Hispanic high school graduates are not as adequately prepared for entry-level college academia. As are graduates who are Native American, Black non-Hispanic, multiracial and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.

However, first-time freshmen enrollment populations are becoming more diverse.

“The only way to break the poverty cycle is education,” Arriaga said.

Although Garcia said it’s important to help the students understand higher education, it’s also important to share that information with their parents and families.

“It's very important for me, personally, to allow students to know that it is possible for them to go to a post-secondary education and to have a career or a job that's much more fulfilling and satisfying financially wise," she said. "And then as well, to educate the parents."

Garcia added part of her role at the summit was to connect the students with training opportunities, like the paid training programs MCC offers.

Arriaga said she is working on expanding the summit to include students from neighboring states next year.

“(These students) are not the future, they are the present.”