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PAVING THE WAY FOR THE LEADERS OF TOMORROW

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The High School Hispanic Leadership Institute (HLI) is a skills-based leadership training program with the goal to develop the

next generation of Hispanic Leaders for the St. Louis community. HLI will consist of six consecutive training sessions that will focus on a particular skill for the developing leader. The institute will train this group of Hispanic students on effective communication, personal productivity, the importance of volunteering, financial literacy and their personal brand. In addition to the leadership training, students are encouraged to give back to the St. Louis area through community involvement. The three essential competencies to be acquired in this class are leading oneself, leading others and leading an organization.

The participants of Class I are as follows:

Kimberly AlbarránJuan Daniel Castellon Acosta

Sofia Di LodovicoTyler Duty

Osvaldo GalindoLaura Gobbo

Daniel HerreraMónica Jara

Eduardo LopezLeilani Martinez

Guadalupe Medina PintorAndres Mendoza

Zilvia MontezMatthias Neumann

Joseph QuickSebastian RabonCharlize Rivera

Vanessa RodriguezDaniel Rojo-Moreno

Daniela Ruiz

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CLASS SCHEDULE AND TOPICS

Monday, June 12 Maximizing Your Cultural Diversity

Tuesday, June 13 DiSC Assessment

Effective Communication Skills

Wednesday, June 14 Personal Productivity

Thursday, June 15 Self Mastery

Friday, June 16 Importance of Volunteering

Lunch Etiquette Professionalism

Saturday, June 17 Financial Literacy: Understanding credit/loans

The Brand Called You

Kimberly Albarrán

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Kimberly Albarrán will be a senior next school year at Notre Dame High School in St. Louis, Missouri. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She was raised in Mexico, and came to St. Louis when she was 11 years old and has lived there ever since.During her senior year, Kimberly will take Spanish 4, Photography, Ceramics, and other required classes. She hopes to obtain more than the required credits to graduate.Notre Dame High School always pushes their students to help out in any way they can. Thanks to this, Kimberly has participated in a lot of service projects and helps out both the school and the community. She has participated in Notre Dame’s Service day for three years in a row. In addition, she helps out at Feed My People, and has volunteered at Salvation Army for about a month. Kimberly is really faithful and believes that helping out is her calling. Since Notre Dame has given her so much she also loves to help out by being in the Harry Potter Club, Library Guild Club, Martha’s in Training, Earth Team, Shalom Club, and Rebel Writers. She also volunteers to help out with concessions stands, and some other activities.Aside from volunteering, Kimberly loves to read, make art, play soccer, and spend time with her family, who are her inspiration to always help out when needed.After graduation, Kimberly hopes to attend Saint Louis University and study Forensics or Art Therapy. She also hopes that college opens many new doors to help out others even in foreign countries.

Juan Daniel Castellon Acosta

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Juan Daniel Castellon Acosta will be a senior at Ritenour High School this fall. Born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, he now lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was reunited with his family after three years of being separated.

During his senior year, Daniel will take several English courses as he continues to improve his English. He also has a great interest and appreciation for world history and will take two history courses.

Aside from academics, Daniel hopes to continue to engage with Ritenour leaders and the community. He has served as a mentor to his peers and younger students who have had similar challenges adjusting to the United States. In addition, he has served as a student representative presenting to the Ritenour Board of Education and Overland Business Association. As a young Honduran immigrant, Daniel understands the importance of communicating the struggles and hardships young people face once they move to the United States.

Daniel will be the first person in his family to graduate from high school. Inspired by his father, he hopes to attend technical college where he plans to study mechanical engineering. Daniel has proven that through hard work, determination and faith, anything can be accomplished.

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Sofia Di Lodovico

Born in San Francisco, California, Sofia Di Lodovico will be a junior this year at the John Burroughs School. She currently resides in Lafayette Square with her mother, as well as in Italy during the summer, with her Father.Along with the rigorous curriculum John Burroughs affords, she will be taking Honors French and Intensive Art to deepen her understanding of the fine arts. Sofia has always loved languages, speaking three different ones at home, and hopes to add French to her list of languages.Sofia is the current leader of the Spanish Club, as well as the founder of the Crafts Club. She intends to organize arts and crafts sessions with nursing homes and children’s hospitals, in order to benefit the community by providing fun, creative space for everyone. Sofia is also an active member of her school’s Community Service Club.Outside of school, Sofia spends her free time making her own clothes, water-coloring, and making arts and crafts with her little brother, or little two sisters. She loves to paint still life, and two of her paintings were accepted into the St. Louis Artists’ Guild Young Artists’ showcase.She has always had a love for design, and hopes to attend design school after graduating from college.

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Tyler Duty

Tyler Duty will be an incoming junior at Edwardsville High School in Edwardsville, Illinois this August. He was born in Alton, Illinois, and currently lives in Glen Carbon. While he is a junior, he will be involved in two honors classes. Those classes include Honors Physics and Honors U.S. History. Although he is taking the advanced classes for those subjects, he excels in math.Tyler is involved with the Edwardsville Cross Country/Track and Field teams. Tyler’s given the opportunity to help out with races and assist in areas where help is needed. Tyler desires and is working towards being an excellent runner for his teams, an outstanding pole vaulter, and a leader for his teammates using demonstration.He also likes to be actively a part of his church and learn more about God. He is given more opportunities to be engaged with his community and make a difference in other’s lives.When Tyler is not participating in these events, he works on his businesses, finds activities that interests him, relaxes, and spends time with his family.When Tyler graduated high school, he plans to further develop his businesses, take one step at a time, and further pursue his relationship with God.

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Osvaldo Galindo

Osvaldo Galindo is currently a senior who is attending St. Mary’s High School. Born in Mexico, Guadalajara, and has now been living in St. Louis for 14 years.

He is a hard-working student who never gives up on his goals. In addition, he also does the best he can at school and with his family to make them happy.

Throughout his life, he has always worked very hard in other activities other than school, such as soccer, track, bowling, and keeping two jobs.

Coming from a family with not so much money to maintain a family of five, Osvaldo knows what it is like to struggle and work for what he and his family has. He is someone who is grateful and never complains over anything because knows there is worse.

Osvaldo completes all his volunteer hours for school. When not working his two jobs, he is attending other activities such as tutoring or being tutored. During his senior year, he plans on getting the best grades possible and getting his diploma.

After that, he hopes to attend Maryville University and go into business or management to achieve his future dream of becoming a leader in his business he hopes to start.

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Laura Gobbo

Laura Gobbo will be a junior at Eureka High School this fall. Born in San Paulo, Brazil, Laura now lives in St. Louis.

This year, Laura is enrolled in three Advanced Placement courses, AP Chemistry, AP Language Arts and AP Government. She is especially interested in her Language Arts and photography classes.

In addition to her schoolwork, Laura is involved in Student Council and French Club. She is also involved in a welcome program for her school that helps onboard incoming freshmen. Laura enjoys helping the new students become a part of her high school.

Laura is passionate about volunteering with the Viva Brazil organization in St. Louis. She helps the students during lessons and likes working at the children’s station at the Festa Junina event.

When Laura is not volunteering, she is playing soccer, tennis and running track. Laura is also passionate about photography.

After high school, Laura would like to attend college and focus on international studies.

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Daniel Herrera

This fall, Daniel Herrera will be a sophomore in the tenth grade and will be attending Westminster Christian Academy in Chesterfield, Missouri. His place of birth is Maryville, Illinois, but now he currently lives in Edwardsville, Illinois. Among other things, Daniel’s primary academic interests are History and Literature. This fall he will be taking two Advanced Placement courses, which are AP European History and AP Spanish Literature. Although primarily interested in History and Literature, he also enjoys Biology and Microbiology. Throughout the year, Daniel has participated with SIUE students in projects involving the children from the Fairmont City Library. Interacting in Spanish through crafts and other activities, Daniel enjoys getting to know the children at the library. Daniel also participates at Hispanic Festivals with his father and The Bank of Edwardsville. He helps with the set up and advertisement of The Bank.Outside of school, Daniel’s biggest passion is music. Particularly, Daniel enjoys listening and playing Classical Music and Jazz on his primary instrument which is piano. Sports are also a very big passion. His favorite sports are soccer and swimming. And his hobbies include reading History books and playing chess. After high school, Daniel plans either to attend St. Louis University or Washington University. Architecture or Civil Engineering is what he plans to major in and possibly minor in music.

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Mónica Jara

Mónica Jara will be a senior at Ritenour High School in the fall of 2017. She was born and raised in St. Louis, and still calls the city home today.

Mónica has always had an interest in learning the world’s wide variety of history - dating way back from Aztec traditions, to modern American politics. By being enrolled in classes such as Philosophy and Latin History for her senior year, Mónica hopes to further develop and enlighten her own principles and philosophical views on life.

Aside from personal academic interest, Mónica has dedicated, and committed to volunteering for the service of her community and fellow students as a student council member. She has been a part of a great amount of community service projects, including organizing charitable events for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, to collecting can food for those in the time of need.

Some of Mónica’s extracurricular activities include being very active, and is very involved in sports. She enjoys playing sports such as swimming and soccer; even when she’s not competing, she’s a team manager for the boys’ varsity swim team.

After Graduation, Mónica plans to attend two years of community college before transferring to Truman State University.

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Eduardo Lopez

Eduardo Lopez will be a senior at St. Mary’s High School in St. Louis, Missouri this fall. He was born and raised in South City of St. Louis.

During Eduardo’s senior year, he will be taking four college credit courses, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP English, and AP History. He is interested in the math and sciences and hopes to further his knowledge in those subjects.

Eduardo enjoys spending time helping others by volunteering at different places. He has more than 200 hours of service varying at different places such as his home parish, the wider church, school, and his local community, over his past 3 years attending St. Mary’s. He also enjoys tutoring his younger cousins with their homework.

Eduardo currently has three jobs: construction with his father, working at Robertos Trattoria, and at Tower Grove Creamery. He also spends his time playing volleyball and bowling on a team.

Once graduating, Eduardo plans on attending either Missouri S&T, SEMO, or St. Mary’s University. He wants to focus on engineering and plans on majoring in Geophysical Engineering.

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Leilani Martinez

Leilani Martinez is an upcoming senior at McCluer High School in St. Louis, Missouri. After leaving her hometown of Fontana, California, she has been a St. Louis resident for three years.

During her senior year, Leilani will be furthering her studies in humanitarian assistance by taking courses such as psychology and child development.

She will have completed four years in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program by spring ‘18.

After managing the varsity boys’ soccer team, Leilani will continue to participate in political conversations relating to current issues such as police brutality and Flint, Michigan’s water crisis with the Latino Student Group and Student Social Justice Group.

Leilani works evenings and reads while on her bus route every day. A favorite pastime of hers is sightseeing new places whenever possible and playing soccer.

After graduation, Leilani plans to attend a community college for two years and then transfer to a university. She will pursue a career in humanitarian services and education.

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Guadalupe Medina Pintor

Lupe Medina will be a senior at Francis Howell North in St. Charles, Missouri this fall. Although born in Mexico, she was raised in St. Ann through 7th grade until her family moved to St. Charles.

In the fall, Medina will be taking AP Calculus and continuing her 5th consecutive year in choir. She will also return as an editor for the FHNtoday TV publications staff for her school. She creates news and feature videos, helps livestream sports games, and anchors for the FHNtoday TV podcasts. Medina is active in her community by helping out as needed through the National Honor Society program.

Outside of her school life, she helps her dad with his photography and videography business. She has a passion for both of these and hopes to keep on growing in her skills. Besides knowing how to take photos and videos, she can work in many softwares such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, and Adobe Lightroom.

Aside from starting her own photography and videography business in the near future, Medina plans on attending St. Charles Community College for two years right after high school and then transfer to Lindenwood University.

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Andres Mendoza

Andres Mendoza will be a senior at Christian Brother College High School in St. Louis, Missouri in May, 2019. Born in Rolla, Missouri, he now lives in Creve Coeur.Andres has completed more than100 hours of community service hours at CBC, St. Vincent of Paul Society and TASK (Team Activities for Special Kids). He has shown great leadership skills helping at his school during special events as an ambassador, collecting money at the fundraiser activities and putting all his best effort to win in sports. He is a three-sport athlete, who has played soccer for five years, basketball for four years and track and field for two years. He has a GPA of 3.9 and will take three honors classes on his junior year. Andres is very passionate for learning new languages and cultures. He speaks Spanish fluently and he will take his third year of French in the coming fall. Andres has interacted with different cultures on his multiple trips to South America, Europe and Asia. He embraces his Hispanic cultural heritage on a regular basis by helping the AVMO (Venezuelan Association in Missouri) on their multiple events: serving meals, cleaning up, entertaining little kids, etc. In the summer, he plans to attend two engineering summer camps at St. Louis University and Missouri S&T University to explore the possibility of studying engineering in college. In his free time, Andres enjoys biking, hiking, working out and watching movies.

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Zilvia Montez

My name is Zilvia Montez and I am seventeen years old. I currently attend the Collinsville High School in Illinois, home of the Kahoks.

The most notable positions of leadership that I withhold at CHS include Spanish Club President and Student Council Congress Committee Chairman. I am passionate in advertising school spirit, involvement, and making it an enjoyable experience for everyone. This includes indulging myself in activities such as volunteering my time helping during Freshman Orientation, organizing school dances/award ceremonies, and the Toys for Tots Foundation.

Most of my free time is spent either with family, friends, or cheering on our Blues. Excelling to have the Latino voice be heard is fundamental and ideal. My role as an active student has given me many opportunities and I focus mainly on my goal of leaving the world better than the way I found it.

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Matthias Neumann

Matthias Neumann will be a sophomore this school year at Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri. His family is mainly Argentinian, but he was born in Landshut, Germany. Matthias now lives inWildwood, Missouri.

Matthias enjoys a wide range of subjects, from language arts to science to fine arts. Matthias will be taking all honors classes including AP Spanish V and AP World History next year. He loves to learn to new skills, especially languages. He is currently learning his third language: German.

Although Matthias likes learning at school, he also likes to spend his time helping others. Key Club was the first extracurricular activity he signed up for. Matthias joined it because he wants to give back to the community through service. He likes to volunteer for park service and enjoys working outside.

He has various interests outside of school. These interests include any types of games, reading, film, art, and experimenting with new food.

Matthias is mostly indecisive on what he plans on doing in the future, but is certain on pursuing a higher education.

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Joseph Quick

Joe Quick was born in Morristown, New Jersey.

Joe will be starting his junior year at Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri this fall. Joe now resides in the city of Ellisville in St. Louis County.

In school, Joe enjoys studying history, language arts, and theater. Joe is member of Lafayette High School’s improv team, Undefined, and he wrote two skits featured in its “Thursday Night Live” program this last school year.

Previously, Joe volunteered at the Daniel Boone Public Library in Ellisville, where he registered patrons for the Summer Reading Program. This summer, Joe is working part-time at Experitec, Inc. in the valve automation and shipping unit.

Joe is a life-long member of the Bolivian Society of St. Louis and is active in its youth activities group. Joe plays baseball and soccer, and is a die-hard St. Louis Blues and St. Louis Cardinals fan.

After high school, Joe plans to attend the University of Missouri-Columbia and would like to study journalism or digital storytelling, and is considering law school after he earns his undergraduate degree.

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Sebastian Rabon

Sebastian Rabon will be a junior at Whitfield High School in Creve Coeur, Missouri this fall. He was born in St. Louis and he currently lives in Ballwin. He comes from a bicultural family; his father was from Kansas City and his mother is Colombian.

Along with all the core academic subjects, during his junior year, Sebastian will continue to participate and perform with school band, playing the bass, thus continuing his passion for music. He will also be taking advanced photography to keep exploring a different form of art. Sebastian is looking forward to a challenging year in Spanish 4, which will prepare him for an AP Spanish Language course his senior year.

Sebastian will continue doing community service with his class during the 2017-2018 academic year. During the summer, he will be volunteering for a non-profit foundation that helps low-income school age boys develop skills for school and life in Bogotá, Colombia.

Sebastian plays varsity basketball for his school. Whenever he has free time, he is working on music and making songs with different artists in the world.

After graduation, Sebastian plans on going into a music production major in college. He is undecided about what college, but he will start the selection process this academic year.

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Charlize Rivera

Charlize Rivera will be a junior at Seckman High School. She was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Imperial, Missouri.

During her junior year, Charlize will take four Advanced Placement courses, AP English and Composition, AP American History, AP Anatomy, and AP Spanish III. Though this is the most challenging year of High School, she is prepared to take on any challenges that lies ahead. She pushes herself to be an overall well-rounded person, which includes doing what she can to give back to her community.

Charlize loves to help out her community as much as she can. For example, she mentors children and teaches them math, Spanish, and how to play instruments such as Piano, Ukulele, and Guitar. Charlize also volunteered for the 2016 Puerto Rican Society Picnic, and for Puerto Rican booth at the 2016 Festival of Nations. These are a just a few ways Charlize provides for her community, and she hopes to contribute more.

In her free time, Charlize loves to sing and play instruments. She enjoys to swim, along with having family movie nights.

After high school, Charlize wishes to attend Washington University to study medicine.

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Vanessa Rodriguez

Vanessa Rodriguez is a 16 year old girl who was born in Alton, IL and has recently moved to Collinsville, IL. She attends Collinsville High School and will be a junior in the fall.

She will take AP Chemistry and AP English three. She is interested in after school activities with Pep Club, S.T.E.M., and also continue with her role in martial arts.

She also wishes to volunteer her time. She volunteers in her church in Ferguson called Our Lady of Guadalupe. She sings in choir and will also join the youth group in her parish. She would like to volunteer her time for those who need help. For example, she would like to help in a local soup kitchen or tutor students that need help.

She enjoys cooking, baking, martial arts, and spending time with my family and friends.

After graduation, Vanessa would like to go to SIUE to get degrees in business and Human Resources. Vanessa may change her mind in the future due to her interest in science and helping others.

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Daniel Rojo-Moreno

Daniel Rojo-Moreno will be attending Ritenour High School in St. Louis, Missouri for his senior year. Daniel was born in Ocotlán, Jalisco and moved to St. Louis when he was three years old.

This upcoming year, Daniel will take four advanced placement courses, AP Calculus, AP Biology, 1818, and Engineering for Design and Development.

In addition to these four laborious classes, Daniel will be playing soccer at a varsity level and be participating in DECA so that he can acquire business skills that will help him in the future. Daniel prefers science and math because they are challenging and intricate.

In his free time, Daniel likes playing soccer with his friends, exercising, and hanging out with his soccer friends.

After graduation, he wants to major in biology and become an orthopedic surgeon. He does not know what college he wants to attend yet, but will decide by the beginning of the school year.

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Daniela Ruiz

Daniela Ruiz will be a senior at Ritenour High School in St. Louis Missouri. She was born in Sinaloa, Mexico, and now lives in Overland.St. Louis has been her home for 12 years.

For her senior year of high school, Daniela is interested in further developing her skills in what she is passionate about, which is art. Previously she has taken AP courses since freshman year and thinks it’s better to focus on something she is interested in for college.

Daniela does not have any experience in volunteering as of right now. She is hoping that after completing the HLI program she will be able to actively seek opportunities to help others and her community.

As for extracurricular activities, Daniela can be found spending time with her brother, or drawing. She is also a part of multiple clubs at school such as World Language Club, Art Club, Creative Writing Club, Anime Club and she is also a part of the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) at her school.

Right now Daniela knows she wants to go to college, but doesn’t know where. She does have a passion for art so she is considering an art major.

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