Migrant and farm family students from Malheur County attended a leadership summit at Eastern Oregon University on Saturday, Aug. 10.
The Oregon Migrant Leadership Institute, funded by the state Department of Education and housed at Treasure Valley Community College, hosts three week-long camps each summer for middle and high school students from migrant and farming families.
The camp fosters leadership skills among the students and familiarizes them with a college environment so that they see college as a reality. According to Greg Contreras, program director, TVCC has hosted the camps since 2018.
Contreras, an Ontario native who grew up in a migrant family, said the program has grown in popularity. He said organizers decided to build on the institute’s success this year by hosting its first leadership summit. He said the idea of having the summit before students return to school was to inspire them for the coming school year.
Contreras said the event featured three keynote speakers from a national youth engagement company.
Contreras said the speakers focused on how students can “bring their best to their education.”
He said the speakers talked to the students about being proud of their roots, building the courage to advocate for themselves and getting involved in school activities while making education a priority in their lives.
He said the speakers talked to the students about having a “growth mindset” for their education and the importance of creating goals and working in partnership with their instructors and their support systems.
Contreras said what he liked about speakers was that they had the students participate in activities and workshops to connect with the students.
Mercedez Mireles, 16, a junior at Ontario High School who attended the event, said she learned a lot from the workshops, from communication strategies to finding opportunities to connect with her roots through friends she has made at the leadership institute and those in the community.
Mireles, whose mother has worked in the onion fields in Ontario, turned 16 at the event. She said she has been attending the leadership camps for four years. She said the leadership summit was an excellent opportunity and experience.
News tip? Send your information to [email protected].
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE – The Malheur Enterprise delivers quality local journalism – fair and accurate. You can read it any hour, any day with a digital subscription. Read it on your phone, your Tablet, your home computer. Click subscribe – $7.50 a month.