Four San Fernando High School students have successfully completed the HOPE Youth Leadership Program (HYLP), a six-month intensive program specifically designed to develop the leadership skills and enhance the civic engagement of underserved Latina youth across the state of California.
San Fernando High students Alexis Brianna Dominguez, Berenice Magaña, Ashley P. Rodriguez and Maria Jasmin Velazquez are among the 34 eleventh graders that are this year’s HYLP graduating class. The attendees come from California high schools in Bakersfield, Calistoga, Compton, Fresno, Oakland, Riverside, San Fernando, San Jose, and Santa Ana.
The students were selected in partnership with the Youth Policy Institute, a national nonprofit organization with offices in San Fernando.
The graduation will take place at UC Riverside on Friday, June 16.
Participating students took part in four three day sessions made up of financial literacy and civic engagement workshops and trainings; site visits to top universities in the state; participation in major conferences including HOPE’s Latina History Day and Latina Action Day; as well as in-depth research projects on issues impacting their communities.
The San Fernando quartet researched the issue of civic engagement among their peers, and had the opportunity to present their findings to state assembly and senate representatives in Sacramento in April.
“HOPE has empowered me and it has also shown me that I am capable of doing anything I want to do in life,” Dominguez said.