National Hispanic Institute
| File:NHI-currentlogo.png | |
| Founded | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Ernesto Nieto |
| Type | Think Tank |
| Focus | Leadership & Education |
| Location | |
Area served | United States, Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Spain, Dominican Republic |
Members | 85,000 (5,000 new participants a year) |
Key people | Ernesto Nieto President Gloria DeLeon Executive Vice President Nicole Sada Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Hector H. Lopez Associate Vice President Government, Community & Public Relations Lori Mendoza Business & Finance Director |
Volunteers | 85,000 (alumni volunteers) |
| Website | http://www.nhi-net.org |
The National Hispanic Institute (NHI) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the future leadership needs of the global Hispanic community. Founded in 1979 in the State of Texas with the mission of serving the future leadership needs of the United States via the Hispanic Latino community, NHI became the largest Hispanic Latino youth organization in the United States.[1][2] NHI is now an international organization with over 85,000 alumni worldwide and a well-known consortium of notable colleges and universities.[2][3][4]
To carry out its mission, NHI annually conducts independent research focused on leadership and educational development, collaborates with K-12 schools, colleges, and universities, and annually works with over 3,000 high-achieving youth and their families. According to its website, NHI has distinguished itself from other organizations by not focusing on civil rights, not pointing to existing social problems as the rally-call to civic involvement, or depicting Hispanics and Latinos as a community in urgent need in order to influence giving.[2] NHI instead recognizes the talent of Hispanic and Latino youth, the potential they represent to the future of the Hispanic/Latino community and extended sectors of the American and global society. Based on this philosophy, NHI develops and conducts experiences through which students may become intellectually, culturally, and socially engaged in the life of their communities.[2]
NHI utilizes a combination community-based revenue generating strategies to fund its work. It relies neither on government nor private charity to support its efforts.[2] NHI is headquartered in Maxwell, Texas (approx. 30 minutes southeast of Austin, Texas) and maintains its Leadership Service Center on the campus of Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania (approx. 20 minutes west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania),[5] and its partnership with the Center for Hispanic Studies on the campus of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.[6]
Work
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| Hispanic and Latino Americans |
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Leadership & Academic Programs
Since its first program in 1981, the National Hispanic Institute has identified and selected high-ability youth to participate in its leadership and academic development experiences. These selected students are intellectually challenged to alter old, strident views that have historically framed their understanding of Hispanics and Latinos.[2] According to its website, NHI's leadership programs pursue four key outcomes:
- - Instead of continuing the popularly held social notions of a people at the bottom of the human scale, students are presented with a new view, one of an energetic, dynamic, and powerful intertwined culture of global dimensions and potential.
- - Instead of perceiving their educational development as being driven by the need to champion the cause of downtrodden communities, students develop an appreciation for the roles that intellectually, socially, and culturally play a role in guiding and advancing the equity, wealth, and skill-building trajectory of the future their community.
- - Instead of viewing themselves as a collection of individuals from different nationalities, countries and backgrounds, students embrace the concept of a world-wide culture of Latinos tied together by a commonality of historical events, experiences, and language.
- - Instead of being guided by an urgency to avoid causing potential harm to the American and global quality of life, students’ calling to leadership is invigorated by the excitement of supplying new strength, vigor, and promise to the American and global experience.[2]
NHI leadership programs are hosted on the campuses of notable universities that are members of the organization's consortium known as the NHI College Register (NHI CR). The leadership programs have historically been hosted on campuses in Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington State in the continental United States. They have also been hosted in Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Spain.[2]
The Great Debate
(for 9th grade students)
The Great Debate gives high-achieving 9th grade students the opportunity to represent their community at an international young leaders conference through organized discussions and debates about issues that impact today's global Hispanic and Latino community. This allows students to test and improve their written and verbal communication skills and gain confidence and appreciation of communication as a powerful tool in leadership. Students gain experience creating content-rich arguments, communicating them through powerful, eloquent expression, and carefully analyzing the arguments presented by their peers. Most importantly, students begin to immerse themselves in the everyday issues that face the global Hispanic/Latino community.[7][8][9]
Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session (LDZ)
(for 10th & 11th grade students)
The LDZ challenges high-achieving 10th grade students to envision themselves as part of the future leadership of a 21st Century Hispanic/Latino community. This international youth congress, allows young people to share their innermost thoughts regarding their hopes and dreams for a 21st Century Hispanic Latino community, and the roles they expect to play in shaping their world as future leaders. Students are challenged to assess the promise and potential of a community rooted in a reality of dual cultures. as a result, critical thinking, collaboration, and the ability to influence outcomes will emerge as essential skills to facilitate success as a leader in the 21st century Latino community.[8][10][11]
Collegiate World Series (CWS)
(for 11th grade NHI alumni)
The CWS allows high-achieving 11th grade NHI alumni that have completed the LDZ and/or YLC the opportunity to evaluate, analyze, and make conscious decisions about their life direction as well as make informed choices about college. Building on the experience of the YLC and LDZ, the CWS prepares high-achieving students to excel in the college admission process and in college life, both academically and socially, and engages students to reflect on the cultural, moral, social, and personal values that inform their identity and life goals.[12]
Mexico Language Program (MLP)
(for 12th grade & college students)
The MLP focuses on the internationalization of perspectives and beliefs as key to 21st century leadership. The MLP allows high-achieving 12th grade and college students to experience Mexico in a month-long (high school seniors), or six-week-long (college students), residential program on the campus of El Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM, or El Tec). Here students experience aspects of the global Hispanic/Latino community alongside Mexican and international students while continuing the leadership and life direction discussion.[13]
John F. Lopez Fellowship (JFL)
(for college students)
The JFL Fellowship gives high-achieving college students the opportunity to develop their ability to mobilize communities and operate at executive levels and provides these students with a means to share their developing knowledge and expertise with others. As counselors, research specialists, trainers and planners, fellows gain direct interactive experiences that enable them to critically examine the needs and capacities required for future leadership. Named in honor of NHI alumnus and Board member, John F. Lopez, Jr., the JFL Fellowship is designed to elicit qualities of spirit, creativity, and talent.[14]
Leadership & Education Research
NHI annually conducts independent research focused on leadership and educational development via its Collaborative Research Center (CRC), its Leadership Service Center (LSC) at Villanova University, and its newly formed partnership with the Center for Hispanic Studies at Southwestern University.
Collaborative Research Center (CRC)
The CRC allows NHI to carry out research in collaboration with diverse community partners. The research across several youth populations includes the study of Latinos from upwardly mobile families, urban inner city settings, rural communities, and immigrant backgrounds. This research allows NHI to remain current regarding the thinking and trends of these different population groups from the perspective of their educational aspirations, career interests, income levels, parent backgrounds and perceptions, youth attitudes towards the Latino community, levels of community involvement, and a host of other activity areas that include political participation, generational dynamics, purchasing trends, etc.[2]
CRC research is used primarily for internal use and study, however, more recently NHI research has been requested for various uses. NHI's CRC studies are currently being aimed to assist institutions of higher learning in their outreach and recruitment efforts, as well as to improve their undergraduate retention rates. Additionally, the CRC is compiling and analyzing data regarding both the U.S. and global Latino community's long-term capacities to maintain organizational effectiveness in an era of extreme population growth.[2]
Leadership Service Center (LSC) at Villanova University
In October 2004, Villanova University and NHI announced a national partnership to jointly launch the Leadership Service Center (LSC) on the campus of Villanova University. The LSC was established to jointly investigate how institutions of higher learning such as Villanova University could advance and develop the Latino college campus community and better develop innovative community outreach that could effectively strengthen both partner's name recognition in northeastern United States Hispanic/Latino communities [15]
Via this national partnership, Villanova and NHI have mutually cultivated community relationships, organized a successful community-based infrastructure, and have effectively engaged key sectors of the high-ability Hispanic/Latino youth community in the northeastern United States. Having inaugurated the LSC at Villanova University in 2004, this joint effort has already begun to prepare young bright Latino men and women for leadership roles in their communities.[16][17]
Partnership with Center for Hispanic Studies at Southwestern University
In February 2008, Southwestern University and NHI announced they would jointly be launching a partnership with the Center for Hispanic Studies on the campus of Southwestern University. The partnership's intent is to research and evaluate college-readiness programs for Hispanic youth. Specifically, the center's intent is to open doors to conducting much-needed research on the impact of community intervention strategies via leadership and education such as those offered by NHI. The partnership is expected to augment the capacity of NHI's ongoing research via its CRC.[2][6]
College Register
NHI's College Register, was founded and launched in 1989, as a consortium of select and notable post-secondary, 4-year institutions that work closely with NHI to develop a new reservoir of Hispanic and Latino leaders that will make an impact on the global Latino community.[18]
The College Register is committed to increasing the numbers of Latino students at notable 4-year institutions and towards the advancement and development of the Hispanic/Latino college campus community. Since its inception, the College Register and NHI have developed programs that have created new market techniques for conducting outreach to Latino families, name-branded member institutions among the college bound Hispanic/Latino youth community, and cultivated strong and effective leadership among Hispanic/Latino campus leaders.[4]
Member Institutions
According to the NHI College Register directory, the following institution are active members of NHI's consortium of notable colleges & universities:[4]
American University, Washington, D.C.
Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois
Austin College, Sherman, Texas
Baylor University, Waco, Texas
Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin
Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, IA
Butler University, Indianapolis, Indiana
Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Colgate University, Hamilton, New York
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado
DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois
DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana
Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts
George Washington University, Washington, DC
Howard Payne University, Brownwood, Texas
Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania
Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
New College of Florida, Sarasota, Florida
New York University, New York, New York
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Rice University, Houston, Texas
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas
St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas
Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana
Stanford University, Stanford, California
Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas
Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN
Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Washington University St. Louis, Missouri
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA
William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Achievements
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History
- NHI was founded in 1979 by Ernesto Nieto and Gloria de Leon in Austin, Texas.[20]
- The organization's main office was first located at Concordia University Texas.[20]
- NHI creates Young Leaders Conference (YLC) in 1981 at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.[21]
- NHI creates Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session (LDZ) in 1983 at Concordia University Texas.[21]
- NHI's headquarters and administrative offices were moved to Maxwell, Texas—outside of Austin—in 1985.[20]
- Founder Ernesto Nieto publishes his book Third Reality: Crafting a 21st Century Hispanic/Latino Agenda, 2001.[22]
- NHI celebrates 25th year anniversary, July 2001.
- NHI opens its Leadership Service Center and East Coast Outreach Office at Villanova University, October 2004.[16]
- NHI announces its Center for Hispanic Studies at Southwestern University, February 2008.[6]
Founder
Ernesto Nieto is the founder of the National Hispanic Institute and has served as President since the organization's inception in 1979. Ernesto Nieto served in various management positions in both the state and federal government. In 1979, he decided to leave his work in government to pursue his vision of creating a leadership institute for Hispanic/Latino youth.[22]
Nieto has received the Eagle Leadership Award by the El Paso, Texas City Council, the Meritorious Service Award by Southwestern University, and honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas. He also has been honored as a "Distinguished Alumnus" of both Southwestern University and Jefferson Davis High School. Other awards include the Southwestern University's Citation of Merit Award for Community Service and the Human Relations Award from the National Association for College Admissions Counseling.[22]
References
- ^ http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/02/prweb729744.htm
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k http://nhi-net.org/AboutNHI/Mission/tabid/59/Default.aspx Cite error: The named reference "nhi-net.org" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/nhi-78640-students-coello.html
- ^ a b c d e f http://www.nhicr.org/MemberDirectory/tabid/56/Default.aspx Cite error: The named reference "nhicr.org" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1677&dept_id=82748&newsid=12843962&PAG=461&rfi=9
- ^ a b c http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/02/04/daily20.html
- ^ http://www.nhi-net.org/Programs/HSPrograms/YLCfor9thGrade/tabid/87/Default.aspx
- ^ a b http://drive.subaru.com/onlinex_winter08.htm
- ^ http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA102607_02B_latinodebaters_33bb8aa_html312.html
- ^ http://www.nhi-net.org/Programs/HSPrograms/LDZfor10th11thGrade/tabid/60/Default.aspx
- ^ http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/?SecID=278&ArID=188383
- ^ http://www.nhi-net.org/Programs/HSPrograms/CWSfor11thGrade/tabid/61/Default.aspx
- ^ http://www.nhi-net.org/Programs/CollegePrograms/MexicoLanguageProgram/tabid/64/Default.aspx
- ^ http://www.nhi-net.org/Programs/CollegePrograms/JohnFLopezSummerInternship/tabid/69/Default.aspx
- ^ http://www.publications.villanova.edu/blueprints/september2004/vupartnership.htm
- ^ a b http://www.publications.villanova.edu/blueprints/october2004/vnhi.htm
- ^ http://www.publications.villanova.edu/blueprints/December2004/lawschool.htm
- ^ http://www.nhicr.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx
- ^ a b c http://www.kiiitv.com/home/12201881.html
- ^ a b c Nieto, Ernesto. Third Reality: Crafting a 21st Century Hispanic/Latino Agenda. Third Reality Publications 2001.
- ^ a b http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwTbaw0PVdk
- ^ a b c http://www.southwestern.edu/newsroom/story.php?id=1031
External links
- Latino organizations
- International organizations
- Non-profit organizations based in Texas
- Think tanks based in the United States
- Student societies in the United States
- Youth organizations based in Texas
- 1979 establishments in the United States
- Educational organizations based in the United States
- Organizations established in 1979