OCM BOCES seeking high school juniors and seniors for the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute

The Mid-State Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network (RBERN) at the Onondaga-Cortland-Madison (OCM) BOCES is currently seeking eligible 11th and 12th grade student applicants to participate in a unique leadership development opportunity. Hispanic/Latino juniors and seniors from Central New York school districts are invited to apply for a four-day leadership training, culminating with attendance at the 25th Annual Angelo Del Toro Puerto/Rican Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute in Albany, NY. This is a free event.

Students are required to attend the three training sessions at OCM BOCES (Feb. 5, Feb. 26 and March 7, 2015) in Syracuse, NY and one session at the Onondaga County Legislative Building (March 17, 2015) in Syracuse, NY. Selected students will attend the Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute in Albany, NY from March 21 through 23, 2015. Please note that all dates are subject to change.

Training opportunities have been aligned with Common Core requirements and are designed to empower Hispanic/Latino students. Participants will have multiple opportunities to interact and network with positive role models, other New York State Hispanic/Latino students, government officials, state trainers, business and community leaders. Additionally, the selected student delegates will participate in a mock assembly and debate legislation at the Albany conference. Several senior scholarship opportunities will be available.

Interested students should complete a PRHYLI Syracuse Delegation Application and submit it by the December 19, 2014 deadline. All applications must be submitted with the required supplemental pieces in order to be considered. Supplemental materials include: a competed essay, a minimum of two PRHYLI Syracuse Delegation Recommendations, a current high school transcript, parental consent and principal/guidance counselor consent form, a completed Student Contract, a completed Parental Medical Consent (English) or Parental Medical Consent (Spanish) and a completed College Survey. All forms are available online by clicking here or on the OCM BOCES PRHYLI webpage at http://www.ocmboces.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=697#one.

The Angelo Del Toro Puerto Rican/Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute is an innovative collaboration with the NYS Assembly/Senate Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force in conjunction with the annual SOMOS El Futuro conference, Office of Bilingual Education and Foreign Language Studies, the New York State City Board of Education, and other agencies as appropriate. For more information, visit the Syracuse Delegation PRHYLI webpage at http://www.ocmboces.org
/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=697#one or contact Tanya Rosado-Barringer, coordinator, at 315-431-2664 or rbern@ocmboces.org.