Hispanic center wants to have summer program for Latino kids

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BY LINDSEY RODRIGUEZ / Lincoln Journal Star

Summer for kids who just finished eighth grade can be like waiting for a race to begin, with the finish line — high school — just in sight.

The Hispanic Community Center wants to give Lincoln’s Latino students a head start.

The center would like to host a six-week Summer Youth Program that would offer four-hour weekday classes for eighth-graders entering high school, but the idea remains a dream.

Organizer Chandra Diaz-DeBose said the center needs $4,000 to offer the program free to about 15 students.

The Summer Youth Program would cover ethnic identity, Chicano/Latino literature, art and culture, healthy lifestyle choices and community service.

“It is designed for eighth- graders going into ninth grade because our ELL (English Language Learner) liaison said that is the biggest population that they have to work with in terms of truancies ... and those types of issues,” Diaz-DeBose said.

Lucila Ramos, a 14-year-old Park Middle School graduate who will go to Lincoln High School next year, said she would gladly participate in the program if it becomes available.

Ramos said she would be most excited to learn about her own culture and would like “learning the difference between different types of cultures.”

Diaz-DeBose said the program would touch on the topic of ethnicity because of interethnic fighting.

Organizers want to teach students to work between ethnic groups in the Latino population, Diaz-DeBose said.

“Often we find that people get upset if people think they are Mexican and they are El Salvadoran,” she said. “They don’t get along and then there is ridiculous interracial fighting. We hope to address that in the identity piece.”

Diaz-DeBose said she would like to give the students a taste of Chicano/Latino literature because it would teach them to express themselves properly. It would also prepare students for the Lincoln Public School’s Writing Graduation Demonstration Exam.

“It would give them more background for going into the ninth grade,” she said.

A Latino art and culture section would be taught because “a lot of the students don’t get the opportunity in middle school and high school to have the taste of the arts.”

Making healthy lifestyle choices is a bigger issue than there is time to address, she said, but the program would cover such issues as diet, exercise and sex education because there are still “too many of our girls getting pregnant.”

Community service would teach students the importance of giving back.

Diaz-DeBose said she would like to offer some sort of incentive for students to attend, such as an end-of-program trip or having students organize a community service come-back-to-school kickoff.

Reach Lindsey Rodriguez at 473-2640 or lrodriguez@journalstar.com.