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The message reached not
only the high-school students in the audience
but their mothers, as well. Some mother were
even inspired to return to school themselves to
pursue higher education.
Irma Garza, who attended Latinas Day with the
eldest of her four daughters, a senior in high
school, said she was encouraged by the messages
from successful Latinas. “I have learned a lot
today, and it really inspires me to want to come
back to school,” she said. “This helped me
because I am hearing things that I am going to
take back home and talk to my other girls about.”
The importance of a mother’s influence in Latino
families and the need to challenge traditional
roles of women were reinforced by speaker Magda
N. Yrizarry, vice president of Workplace
Culture, Diversity and Compliance, Verizon
Communications, who shared the story of her
journey from a childhood in a Brooklyn, N.Y.,
barrio to a successful career in corporate
America . |
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Magda
Yrizzary |
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“I look around
this room and I don’t know your story, but we all
have a story and that adds to the richness of who we
are in the community and it adds to the richness of
what America is as a country,” Yrizarry told the
audience. “Don’t let the labels and don’t let the
world define you. Define yourself.”
UT Pan American alumna Lisa Pelache, who graduated
in 2001 with a degree in mechanical engineering and
now works for Lockheed Martin as a manufacturing
engineer, said she enjoyed returning to the
University to tell students and their mothers that
careers in math, science and engineering are not out
of reach for women. “[Women] think it is a man’s
field,” she said. “There are a lot of girls that are
very good in math and science, and I want them to
realize that engineering is a very good opportunity
for them.”
During the day, in a variety of panel sessions and
other presentations by representatives from such
corporations and agencies as Texas Instruments and
the U.S. Navy, attendees learned practical advice
for succeeding in higher education and in the
workplace, including the importance of fine-tuning
not only their math skills but also their oral- and
written-communication skills, taking advantage of
internship opportunities and being bilingual.
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Congressman Ruben Hinojosa |
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“I can’t emphasize
enough how important it is to preserve your
Spanish,” said Lorna Muńiz Farr, manager of
Hispanic advertising and marketing for
H-E-B, a large grocery-store chain in Texas.
“That is going to give you a huge advantage
over a lot of people when you go into your
careers. If you are bilingual, that makes
you key to any company.”
HESTEC is an ongoing effort to address a
growing concern about the lack of Hispanic
representation—and especially Latina
representation—in the science and
engineering fields. 2006’s event, which will
again include a Latinas Day, will be held
Sept. 25-30 at the UT Pan American campus.
“By the year 2010, Hispanics will represent
one out of four students in U.S. schools,
but today only four percent of U.S.
scientists and engineers are Hispanic—and
even less are women,” says Hinojosa. “By
investing collaborative resources into math,
science and engineering programs, we can
ensure that our workforce is strong and our
competitive edge is maintained.
For more information or to become a sponsor,
log on to
http://www.hestec.org |
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