By Diana Arevalo
La Prensa
SAN ANTONIO — Janie Lopez is a Latina powerhouse who is leading a youth movement in San Antonio. As the Chair of the San Antonio Youth Summit, Lopez bringing together 1,500 San Antonio high school students on Tuesday, April 20th at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and addressing the issues they are facing.
“Even though they come from different social backgrounds they still have the same issues. It’s all about giving the student a voice and an opportunity to contribute and be heard,” said Lopez.
Lopez began working with the Summit after being approached by one of the students on the San Antonio Youth Commission, Zak Newman. As a Human Resources trailblazer at NuStar Energy, Lopez understands how important the city’s youth is when it comes to developing San Antonio’s future workforce.
Janie Lopez is a Latina powerhouse who is leading a youth movement in San Antonio. As the Chair of the San Antonio Youth Summit, Lopez bringing together 1,500 San Antonio high school students on Tuesday, April 20th at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and addressing the issues they are facing.
Lopez mentioned “chairing this enormous event is a lot of fun, yet very stressful, but I have been extremely fortunate in being able to work with a great team of individuals that have been phenomenal in helping to put this event together.”
Armed with a team of San Antonio Youth Commission leaders, business professionals and dozens of volunteers, Janie Lopez is committed to making this event a success and sees this as a step towards the city’s workforce development.
“This summit will help in preparing our future employees, leaders, workforce…this is our future we are talking about. Workforce is one of the reasons that new companies look at cities like ours,” said Lopez.
The San Antonio Youth Summit will feature small group sessions on issues such as: teen pregnancy, drugs and alcohol, healthy eating, gang violence, ACT/SAT preparation, stress management, financial literacy, the political process, entrepreneurship, education options, social networking, community service and mentoring.
In addition, motivational speakers such as former Spurs player Robert Horry, Gordon Hartman, will be on hand to share empowering stories. Also, San Antonio personality Sonny Melendrez will be lending his talents as the emcee.
One of the most important features of the San Antonio Youth Summit is the “Future Fair” which …
Finish reading Youth Summit prepares the city’s youth for leadership
