Con Ganas- with gusto; with vigour; in a lively way; wholeheartedly; forward.
On March 3rd through the 5th the Memorial Student Center Committee for the Awareness of Mexican American Culture (MSC CAMAC) held the 29th Annual Student Conference on Latino Affairs (SCOLA). This inspiring three day event included food, SCOLA swag, opportunities to network, workshops, keynote speakers, roundtable discussions, and a career fair for 260 students from 10 colleges and universities.
A few days before the conference occurred, Texas A&M student and director of SCOLA Rogelio Tinajero spoke about the conference and everything it aims to provide to the latino community.
Tinajero described the conference as a “platform to give a voice to latino students and to latino issues in general.” He believes it is important to provide this type of opportunity to students from all over to come together and discuss issues that can sometimes be minimized, overlooked, or politicized. This year’s theme, ¡Con Ganas!: Building a Legacy, was selected in order to provide the attending students with inspiration and preparation to wholeheartedly create their own legacy.
Throughout the conference, keynote speakers shared their success stories and provided their own insight on the issues at hand.
One of these speakers was journalist and director Barbara Martinez Jitner whose human rights advocacy and research inspired the film Bordertown- a film starring Jennifer Lopez about human rights violations against the women of a small town near the US and Mexico border. Jitner as well as the other speakers are the kind of role models SCOLA intends to provide in order to empower the delegates. Tinajero especially looked forward to Jitner’s speech since she’s a great example of using “her career to build [a] legacy and to make a change”.
Tinajero was also excited about the Friday keynote- a panel of 3 latina entrepreneurs discussing social entrepreneurship. The panel’s purpose was to promote “the idea that you can sell a business, and you can help the community, and you can make profit”, he explained.
SCOLA inspires delegates from all over the area to come together and celebrate what it means to be latinx. SCOLA’s mission to provide a voice to the latino community is hoped to spread to other communities that are in need of it as well. According to Tinajero, SCOLA aims to empower these delegates to celebrate the fact that “they are latinos, they are college students, and they are here making themselves better” so that they may move forward to create an impact outside of the conference.