The third week of the Caminos al Futuro program was bittersweet as we felt the end looming yet continued to enrich our experiences and deepen our friendships through a variety of lectures, discussions, and workshops. This week’s extensive hands on learning experiences granted us the opportunity to directly network with and learn from Latino professionals in fields ranging anywhere from coding to policy. The continual combination of guidance and challenging independence allowed us all to develop crucial skills that we can take with us not just academically but also professionally.
This week’s activities really widened the scope of our learning experience as we learned beyond the established themes of Latino trends and identity and into the necessity of building capital in the Latino community through exposure to practical skills such as learning the fundamentals of the computer language, Python, through Jupyter. Similarly this week’s activities, particularly the CHLI conference, familiarized us with the diversity of political rhetoric at Capitol Hill through exposure to differing perspectives- ultimately allowing us to learn how to more effectively reconcile differences professionally and adapt to different environments both in college and in our future careers.
The program’s ability to foster an environment of empowerment facilitated the development of our community action projects. Many of this week’s final learning concepts allowed us to be better equipped to place the finishing touches on our Community Action Projects- particularly the story telling and advocacy workshop which enabled us to personalize our struggles individually and ultimately within our communities. Although the third week marked the end of our Caminos al Futuro program, I really enjoyed this particular week as it was when the work on our CAP projects culminated and it was the week that the extent of our learning experience became even more apparent. I am really grateful for the dedication of Mario and Dr. Vaquera in developing such a meaningful program for us and also to Mr. and Mrs. Cisneros for investing in the our generation of the Latino community. I look forward to strengthening the network that we built these past three weeks throughout the rest of our academic and professional lives.
–Isabella Canava
