Over 4,000 Latinos from across New York State expected to attend major policy conference starting Friday, culminates with Mock Assembly Session
Assemblyman Marcos A. Crespo, chair of the Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, announced major events which will take place during the 30th Annual Legislative Conference of the Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force known as “the Somos Conference” which occurs on March 24th to 25th 2017 at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York.
Highlighting the three-day gathering of Latino political, civic and labor leaders, including thousands of students and senior citizens will be the keynote address by U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the United States Senate in the 229 years of the Republic.
Senator Cortez Masto is the Junior Senator from Nevada and served as that state’s Attorney General from 2007 to 2015. She is the highest ranking Latino member of Congress and joins the ranks of influential Latinas serving in the federal government alongside Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She will speak on Saturday, March 25th at 7:30 PM at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center.
The conference will kick-off on Friday, March 24th with close to a thousand college students traveling to Albany to participate in a collegiate conference and career fair hosted by the New York State Departments of Labor and Civil Service. Later that morning over 1,200 senior citizens from across the state will arrive for workshops on elderly-related issues and attend the annual Senior Luncheon. Before departing Albany, the college students will participate in a rally on the East Steps of the State Capitol to show their support for comprehensive immigration reform.
“This year’s conference marks the 30th anniversary of groundbreaking work by four Latino lawmakers who saw the need to grow our community’s involvement in the intellectual affairs of our state and nation. Today, there are over 20 members of the New York State Legislature who are Latino or of Latino descent and our focus has always been on creating avenues of opportunity for the next generation,” declared Crespo. “That is the reason this year’s conference theme is ‘A Legacy of Nourishing and Empowering Future Generations.”
On Saturday, March 25th CUNY and SUNY college students will arrive to participate in a mock Senate Session and on Sunday, March 26th over 200 high school student from across New York will arrive for a full day mock Assembly Session. “Over the past 30 years over 5,500 high school students have participated in the Angelo Del Toro Puerto Rican/Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute and hundreds of thousands in scholarship funds have been awarded to participating students,” stated Assemblyman Crespo. These students have been participating in month’s long public policy training at BOCES centers across the State and will spend Monday, March 27th visiting their local legislators as part of their leadership training.
According to Crespo, “Our continued focus on public policies that shape Latino communities is addressed by 18 workshops discussing a wide range of issues prominent in national discourse and in need of solutions,” added, “Each workshop has the participation of expert panelists that will contribute important details and information critical to solving some of our most pressing socio-economic problems.”
Additional information on the dozens of events scheduled for the conference can be found at:
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