“Latino leadership matters. Although Latinos in Central Texas represent a third of the population, they are not proportionately reflected in key leadership positions across all sectors. Supporting the advancement of Latino leadership and creating pipelines of youth and establishing Latino talent is critical to building a thriving Central Texas. We need to get more Latinos to visualize themselves in leadership roles. (Hispanic Impact Report, 2021.)

CTN recently received a grant from the Hispanic Impact Fund, part of the Austin Community Foundation, to promote leadership opportunities and leadership training to students on Austin Community College campuses to help students see themselves as leaders and to provide opportunities to become leaders. CTN will develop a youth leadership curriculum which in part will include organizational skills (Robert’s Rules of Order) for meetings and how the action takes place and modules on types of leadership styles with an emphasis on the servant leadership model. The grant will provide money to pay an intern and instructor per campus.

Some of the facts supporting the rationale for the Leadership Interns at ACC include:  Austin ranks a low 40th among the 50 largest U.S. cities in Latino executive representation with Latinos holding only 7% of all executive positions;  if the Texas Legislature proportionately reflected Texans, there would be 72 Latino legislators, yet there are only 46; none of the 7-member Central Texas delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives are Latino; currently, only 3 out of 10 (30%) Austin City Council seats are held by Latinos; and Latinos barely represent 5% of nonprofit board members in the U.S.