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Every spring, youth from across southwest Kansas are invited to Latino Student Leadership Days, sponsored by Dodge City Community College, USD 443 and the Southwest Plains Regional Service Center.
The topic for this year's sessions was "The Power Is Yours."
Through a combination of speakers, entertainment and breakout sessions, organizers hope to encourage Latino youth to get motivated about education and career choices and maybe get excited about going to college.
"The high school dropout rate is pretty high in the area, and we'd like to see that change," said Irene Perez, who works for the Regional Service Center and serves as committee chairperson for Latino Leadership Days.
The two-day event brings nearly 300 students each day. Day one is for eighth-graders, and day two is for high school students.
The students come from a dozen southwest Kansas schools, including Hays, Pratt and Ulysses.
Not just rhymes
This year, for the first time, organizers decided to bring in a paid speaker for the keynote session. They invited Joaquin Zihuatanejo, who was born and raised in the barrio of East Dallas.
Zihuatanejo is a teacher, poet and spoken-word artist. He was chosen to represent the U.S. at the 2009 World Cup of Poetry Slam in Paris, where he competed against poets from 13 nations and won.
Describing the honor to the students Wednesday, Zihuatanejo said: "Because I won it for you, it belongs to you. It's not the big cup for soccer; it's the little cup for poetry. I have it on my piano.
"And because it belongs to you, you can come see it anytime. If you call me first, I'll make guacamole, and you and I can eat guacamole out of the World Cup for Poetry."
Zihuatanejo said his interest in poetry and the power of words began with his grandfather, who raised him.
"He mowed lawns for a living, and he loved to go treasure hunting. When people would leave trash out on the curb, he would find things and fix them. He'd find boxes of books and get me to read them out loud in English for him," he said.
But it was Zihuatanejo's performance of his poetry that captivated his young audience Wednesday.
Several of his pieces were inspired by the poems created by his students.
In one example, students were assigned a research project to learn about someone in their family that they never got to meet and write a poem about what they learned from that person.
One boy wrote about his father, who committed suicide when the boy was seven days old.
"Everyone said he had a happy face but sad eyes," the boy said.
He explained how his mother told him his dad sat for hours that night, watching him sleep.
"Then he said a prayer over me — it was his final gift."
In his poem, the boy explained what he learned about people like his father.
"They are like the stars. You know, resplendent — but distant."
Every spring, youth from across southwest Kansas are invited to Latino Student Leadership Days, sponsored by Dodge City Community College, USD 443 and the Southwest Plains Regional Service Center.
The topic for this year's sessions was "The Power Is Yours."
Through a combination of speakers, entertainment and breakout sessions, organizers hope to encourage Latino youth to get motivated about education and career choices and maybe get excited about going to college.
"The high school dropout rate is pretty high in the area, and we'd like to see that change," said Irene Perez, who works for the Regional Service Center and serves as committee chairperson for Latino Leadership Days.
The two-day event brings nearly 300 students each day. Day one is for eighth-graders, and day two is for high school students.
The students come from a dozen southwest Kansas schools, including Hays, Pratt and Ulysses.
Not just rhymes
This year, for the first time, organizers decided to bring in a paid speaker for the keynote session. They invited Joaquin Zihuatanejo, who was born and raised in the barrio of East Dallas.
Zihuatanejo is a teacher, poet and spoken-word artist. He was chosen to represent the U.S. at the 2009 World Cup of Poetry Slam in Paris, where he competed against poets from 13 nations and won.
Describing the honor to the students Wednesday, Zihuatanejo said: "Because I won it for you, it belongs to you. It's not the big cup for soccer; it's the little cup for poetry. I have it on my piano.
"And because it belongs to you, you can come see it anytime. If you call me first, I'll make guacamole, and you and I can eat guacamole out of the World Cup for Poetry."
Zihuatanejo said his interest in poetry and the power of words began with his grandfather, who raised him.
"He mowed lawns for a living, and he loved to go treasure hunting. When people would leave trash out on the curb, he would find things and fix them. He'd find boxes of books and get me to read them out loud in English for him," he said.
But it was Zihuatanejo's performance of his poetry that captivated his young audience Wednesday.
Several of his pieces were inspired by the poems created by his students.
In one example, students were assigned a research project to learn about someone in their family that they never got to meet and write a poem about what they learned from that person.
One boy wrote about his father, who committed suicide when the boy was seven days old.
"Everyone said he had a happy face but sad eyes," the boy said.
He explained how his mother told him his dad sat for hours that night, watching him sleep.
"Then he said a prayer over me — it was his final gift."
In his poem, the boy explained what he learned about people like his father.
"They are like the stars. You know, resplendent — but distant."
Students respond
As the students made their way to breakout sessions, Jessica Trujillo, who attends DCHS, DC3 and Alternative Education, said: "That was really great. My favorite poem was the one about the deaf boy who made his poems in sign language."
Trujillo, who is planning a career in the Navy, was enjoying the day so far.
"It's about bringing everyone together and making sure we know we're all one," she said.
Jay Zehr, superintendent of the South Gray school district, brought 10 students to Wednesday's session.
"Those 10 kids represent our entire Latino enrollment in grades 6 through 8," he said.
Zehr's advice to his students was, "Listen, take notes, have fun and make friends."
"We hope they'll understand that it's not just them dealing with some of the situations, they can meet people in similar circumstances," he said. "We hope it's an opportunity to view themselves a little differently and maybe accept leadership roles they might not have felt comfortable with before."
