13th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Conference at UC Davis on April 13
UC Davis, CA – Close to 500 middle and high school students will converge on the UC Davis campus for the 13th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Conference and Celebration on Saturday, April 13, 2013 in Freeborn Hall and Wellman Hall.
The conference will include an Arts, Education, Health and Job Fair. For over a decade, this event has provided guidance to youth seeking to pursue higher education and grant information. Dolores Huerta will speak around 12:45pm in Freeborn Hall.
This unique educational forum allows 6th to 12th grade students and their parents an opportunity to learn how to pursue secondary educational and grant opportunities.
College recruiters will be available to answer student questions. There will also be information designed to empower families to become stronger advocates for their children’s education.
The youth conference is open to people of all ages and races. It is scheduled from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at the UC Davis – Freeborn Hall located at 1 Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616.
Approximately 700 students and 200 parents attended the 2012 conference held in Placer County. The Youth Conference for the first twelve years was held at a Roseville Middle School or at Sierra College in Rocklin.
The event kicks off with free registration, campus tours and a chorizo burrito breakfast, pan dulce and drink beginning at 8am.
Chancellor Linda B. Katehi will give a welcome at 9am followed by an Aztec Dance Cultural Blessing of the Four Directions and the “Meet the Professionals.” Beginning at 9:30am there will also be a live theater presentation of “Nightmare on Puberty St.” provided by Kaiser Educational Theater Programs.
From 11 am to 12:25pm – a series of workshops including educational and career pathways with begin. Over 40 workshops are available for youth and there will be a special Parent Welcome Center for Parent Involvement Workshops provided by PIQE – Parent Involvement Quality Education all in Wellman Hall.
From 12:30 pm to 2:55 pm, there will be a special program, “Embrace the Legacy of Cesar Chavez” lunchtime celebration and talent show. Performers include folkloric dancers, Mariachis, Aztec dancers, break dancing, trick roping cowboy and whip master James Barrera and much more Live Entertainment inside Freeborn Hall. There will also be carnita and vegetarian burritos for conference attendees to feast upon at lunchtime.
The conference was founded in 2001 by UC Davis graduate Rene Aguilera, a Roseville Joint Union High School District Board Trustee. Aguilera and his two sisters and his two brothers Taty and Adam – also graduates of UC Davis – continue to organize and promote this free event to youth throughout Northern California, the Central Valley and the Bay Area.
The conference traditionally kicks off a series of Sacramento-area events related to California’s Cesar Chavez Holiday.
Cesar Chavez was co-founder and president of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. He led the union from the 1960s to his death at age 66 in 1993. The UFW was instrumental in organizing farm workers in several states. In 2000, Governor Gray Davis signed SB 984, asking that school districts give an hour of instruction in all schools around Chavez’s March 31 birthday.
The youth conference continues to recognize the UFW founder’s lessons on non-violence, self-sacrifice and social justice.
Students are encouraged to engage in some form of public service appropriate for their age and grade as part of the Cesar Chavez Day of Service of Learning.
“In times of recession, education is the key to building a road to a career,” said Aguilera. “That is why we provide this conference so that students and their families can discover scholarship, college and other educational services that are available to them. The Cesar E. Chavez Youth Leadership Conference supplements what most school districts do on or around March 31 – his birthday and acts as a primer for learning. We ask parents, students, educators and business and community leaders to come out and volunteer their time to teach and learn from each other on both days,” said Aguilera.
“The overall goal of the conference is to help youths learn how to be community leaders; how to become involved; how to learn about social and political issues; and how to pursue educational opportunities beyond high school. Topics will include student financial aid, scholarships and career information plus career workshops in engineering, law, journalism, environment, military, teaching, social welfare, art, music and dance, medicine, law enforcement and professional athletics and many others.” Aguilera concluded.
UC Davis Campus Tours will also be given and they will leave from Freeborn Hall throughout the day and last fifty-five minutes beginning at 8am, 9:30am, 11am, 1pm and at 3pm. If your family or school that is attending the conference would like to reserve a tour just call Conference Coordinator Rene Aguilera at 916-532-5998 or sign up in the morning in the lobby registration area of Freeborn Hall.
Sponsor and Hosts include: Campus Community Engagement, Office of Campus Community Relations, University of California, Davis, Hispanic Empowerment Association of Roseville (HEAR) and the California Latino School Boards Association.
For more information on the Cesar Chavez Youth Leadership Conference and Celebration, call Rene Aguilera at (916) 532-5998, or fax registration applications to H.E.A.R. at (916) 782-2040. Or students can take their completed application to school counselor and ask them to fax it. Visit the conference web site at www.hear2000.org.
