Nebraska Cultural Unity Conference promotes higher education among high school students |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Apr 02 2008 at 5:05 PM |
Photo by Kristen Brockman
Juan Guzman (left) applauds as Mr. Rendon, multicultural at rick coordinator from Grand Island Senior High (right), is recognized as teh 2008 Educator of the Year during the Nebraska Cutural Unity Conference.
Over 400 high school students from Nebraska and Kansas spent Friday at UNK learning about pursuing higher education.
The Office of Multicultural Affairs recently hosted their sixth-annual Nebraska Cultural Unity Conference. The purpose of NCUC is to promote the pursuit of post-high school education, no matter what that might be, to all multicultural students.
NCUC offers students the opportunity to attend different workshops ranging from financial aid to leadership skills, listen to motivational keynote speakers and interact with current college students.
This year's conference workshops included a session about financial aid, a leadership session, immigration, current issues of society, alternative options to a four-year college, and discussions with UNK alumni.
The keynote speakers were Dr. Dick C.E. Davis and Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch.
Dr. Davis is the Chief Executive Officer of the Davis Companies, a risk service firm that provides sophisticated insurance brokerage, financial consulting and contractor development services.
Dr. Davis holds a bachelor's degree and doctorate in education from UNL, and his master's degree in education from UNO. He is the co-founder of the Davis-Chambers scholarship fund with State Senator Ernie Chambers. This fund was created in memorial to Dr. Davis' brother, Rick Davis. UNK currently offers the scholarship through OMA.
Conseulo Castillo Kickbusch overcame poverty and illiteracy to become a successful leadership role model for her community. She broke barriers and set records in the military to become a senior officer and the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in the Combat Support Field of the United States Army.
NCUC came to UNK in 2003 and was originally known as the Cultural Unity Conference. A group of five students from OMA attended a Black Summit in Lincoln. After seeing the importance of the information addressed at the Summit, CUC was born.
NCUC has grown more each year in terms of the number of students who attend. The first year 175 students attended.
"CUC was originally a male Latino Summit," Juan Guzman, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs said. "We recognized that women were also interested in attending, so we expanded it."
NCUC is unique in that the entire conference is coordinated by students. This year's conference planning committee was headed by Monica Mueller, a senior communication disorders major from Holdrege, and Joel Lemus, a senior middle-level education major from Schuyler, with Guzman, Dr. Sam Lopez, associate professor of HPERLS and a committee of 14 students.
Sixty-five students served as volunteers during the conference. Planning began at the end of last year shortly after CUC 2007 ended.
"Since a large population of students is not college-bound, we want to show them that there are many different options," Mueller said.
"For many of these students, this is the only opportunity they have to visit a college campus," Lemus said.
This year's planning committee chose to make one significant change for the 2008 conference, a name change. Nebraska was added to the name in order to give the conference more of an identity. The idea came from a suggestion heard at the 2007 United States Hispanic Leadership Institute conference that many of the students on the planning committee attended.
"This is the only conference of this type in Nebraska," Mueller said.
NCUC is not meant to be a recruitment tool for UNK but for pursuing higher education in general. Guzman hopes that students who attend will aspire to graduate high school and pursue post-high school opportunities, no matter what that might be.
"This is a good opportunity for them to hear about scholarships, aid and the opportunities provided for them, and to get the right information," said Guzman.
