In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15 - Oct 15), Google is hosting a
Pay It Forward Challenge to recognize Latinx/Hispanic student leaders who are advancing opportunities for their local communities. We’re excited to share the work of the students below and hope you’ll be inspired by their stories.
Update: After receiving so may great submissions, we decided to make this a three-part blog post. Be sure to check out Part 2 and Part 3.
Edgar Bustos
Edgar Bustos is a junior at the University of Southern California triple majoring in Economics, Business Administration, and Political Science with a minor in Law and Public Policy. He was born in Dallas, Texas, is a first-generation American, and a self-described "son of a proud Mexican woman".
Edgar has devoted his undergraduate career to supporting the development of Latinx/Hispanic students as the President of
QuestBridge at his university. QuestBridge matches high-achieving, low-income students to elite universities with full scholarships. Edgar explains, "QuestBridge made college possible for me. Now, I serve as President of QuestBridge at the University of Southern California, where I partner with a talented executive board to serve college students and the surrounding community. I have prioritized training events that help first-generation/low-income students to become competitive job seekers and graduate school applicants. I am also reaching out to public schools with majority-Latinx students to sponsor events where we can teach students about scholarship opportunities."
In an effort to increase Latinx representation in executive roles, Edgar also created Latinxs in Human Resources. Edgar uses LHR to promote the development of underrepresented communities and provide information about career paths in Human Resources. "It is my hope that by targeting the development of Latinxs before, during, and after college, I can make lasting impacts in the Latinx community." In his "spare" time, Edgar acts as a student teacher with Mission Science. He actively supports STEM exposure for Latinx/Hispanic students by leading after-school science lessons.
How can you help?
If you, or someone you know, is a high-achieving, low-income student – you can read more about QuestBridge
here. If you are a representative from a university not currently partnering with QuestBridge, please consider advocating for a QuestBridge partnership at your University.
Bianca Alvarez
Bianca is a student at The University of Texas at El Paso, the Vice President of UTEP's chapter of
ACMW (Association for Computing Machinery Council on Women in Computing), a
National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) AspireIT Program Leader, and "passionate about empowering Hispanic girls through technology and educational programs".
The NCWIT AspireIT program is a computer science initiative for girls in grades K-12. As a program leader, Bianca helped raise over $5,000 in 2018 to engage Hispanic girls through summer camps and programming clubs. This year, she partnered with
Latinitas, a nonprofit organization focused on empowering young Latinas using media and technology. Together they hosted the summer camp "Latinitas Code Chica", aimed for girls in 4th-8th grade and will begin the "Code Chica After School Club" in late October.
"As the AspireIT Leader, I was able to share my passion in tech and teach participants fundamentals in programming and computational thinking in a fun and creative environment. My vision for the future of women in the tech industry is to see Latina girls having the same opportunity to learn programming skills at a young age, regardless of their ethnicity or economic status."
What inspires Bianca about Hispanic Heritage Month
"The magic of the Hispanic Heritage Month is about learning from other Hispanics willing to contribute to our next generation in the technology industry. To be part of the present and future and recognize that we also have inspirational role models to follow and imitate their willingness and hard work to reach our goals. Being a Latina in a technology field means being part of a minority group, it can be both challenging and difficult to 'fit in'. I strongly think that everyone is capable of thriving in the tech world. To Latina girls that want to pursue a career in technology, I will tell them not to be afraid of stereotypes and go for it."
Guillermo Camarillo
Guillermo is a junior at Stanford University studying Management Science and Engineering. He was born and raised in Chicago's West-Side neighborhood, La Villita. He is the middle child of a family of three boys and is the first one to attend college in his family. His parents are immigrants from Mexico.
Guillermo has been involved in just a few things:
- Guillermo launched an organization called Chicago Latinx Scholars that works to connect and give resources to Latinx high schoolers, college students, professionals, and nontraditional students in and from Chicago. The organization has taken initiative to set up workshops across the city to help youth and young professionals network and get assistance with scholarships and college applications. They have partnered with various nonprofits like Mind+Hand and Chicago Scholars to help setup workshops. The organization utilizes social media platforms to connect students and has around 4.3k members as of today.
- Guillermo also runs Barrio Assistance – a community service group at Stanford that brings in Latinx youth to be mentored and tutored by Stanford students. Guillermo has spent two hours every Saturday since tutoring his mentee since his freshman year.
- He also works at the Stanford Undergraduate Admissions Office as a Diversity Associate, is part of a nonprofit called Human Engineers that takes medical missions to the Philippines to help build prostheses for amputees, is a Jopwell ambassador where he connects students of color to professional careers, and this past spring quarter he led an alternative spring break trip to Chicago where he connected Stanford students to communities of color and immersed them in their activism efforts.
How can you help?
"This platform can be helpful to me by bringing more publicity to
Chicago Latinx Scholars and the movement that I have started in Chicago. I want people to see that youth like myself are proactively trying to solve some of the most pressing issues affecting Chicago. I want my organization and movement to serve as a model for what youth can be doing to fill in the gaps. In addition, I hope that the publicity connects me to people, organizations, and resources that can support me in this mission to provide resources to Latinx youth in and from Chicago. Chicago is currently facing many issues ranging from gun violence to lack of adequate educational institutions, I want to challenge the narrative and I want to show the world that youth in Chicago are part of the change and not the problem."
Diana Balderas
Diana is a freshman at Bakersfield College studying Computer Science. She was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California. Her love for technology came to be when she participated in CS summer programs throughout high school such as
Kode With Klossy,
Girls Who Code, and
Google CSSI. She is an advocate for Hispanics in STEM and is currently working on her ongoing project called Food Distribution, a mobile application to decrease food waste, poverty, and hunger.
"The community where I was raised Hispanics had little to no role models to look up to . That shifted when I took a step forward to become a leader." Diana began by volunteering with
Girls Who Code to teach young women how to code. She became an ambassador to recruit and get more females involved in technology and computer science. Additionally, she created a mobile application prototype called 'Food Distribution' for the
Congressional App Challenge – she was one of the few Hispanics who participated and was awarded with recognition. This motivated her to build her tech startup called
Nebala, a platform to build mobile applications and technology products.
Diana’s advice to others
"Advice I would give to an individual would be to never doubt yourself. You may have to take a risk to get your initiative to function. Be someone who is willing to make a difference. Think positive. There is someone out there in the community that could use your resources. They are hoping to find you and get involved."
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