Career Enhancement for Latinos with Andrea Sáenz, Executive Director, Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement

Andrea Saenz, the executive director of the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE), gave a very informative presentation about Latinos or Hispanics in America.
Mrs. Saenz began her presentation by defining terms such as “American”, “Latino”, “Hispanic”, “Chicano”, etc. She explained that people living in Central, and South American countries identify themselves as American. To them, people living in the US are simply known as US citizens, with the term “American”, being more inclusive.

The definition of the terms “Hispanics” and “Latinos” are used interchangeably although there is a slight distinction. Hispanic is the term for people who use Spanish as a language. The term “Latino” is used to describe people whose language is Latin based. This would include Brazilians who speak Portuguese.

According to statistics, Latinos make up 15% of the population in the US. By 2010 that percentage would increase to 20%. One should keep in mind that these statistics are a measurement of self identification.

In other statistics there is a growing trend in the Latino population. While education is at a low for Latinos, their being a part of the workforce is high. Concerning college, there is an increase in enrolment, but there is a lesser percentage for completing college.

Also of importance is the trend of Latino populations moving from the city to the suburbs.

Mrs. Saenz stated that building a network is important. Being bilingual is also an advantage in the workforce.

HACE is occupied with helping Latinos and Hispanics in high school and college with the purpose of furthering their careers. There are a large number of students who do not have their careers planned out yet. HACE is working with them to lay out a map so to speak to make such endeavors attainable.

In the question and answer session, Mrs. Saenz discussed the reason why Latinos are moving to the suburbs. Also she gave advice on how colleges can reach out to high school students.