The Activities and Recreation Center, or ARC, hosted the fourth annual Latino Youth Conference on Friday, bringing in Latino high school students from the Champaign-Urbana area as well as from neighboring towns.

The event was sponsored by La Casa Cultural Latina, University Housing, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement, among others. At the conference, high school students from Danville, Rantoul, Arcola, Urbana and Champaign congregated for the day’s events. The conference featured a short film and held lectures and workshops.

Sheila Adele Lozano, director of La Casa and main organizer of the event, said the goal of the conference was to reach out to the growing Latino youth in the region.

“The University of Illinois focuses a lot of their time in the Chicagoland area and the St. Louis area but not a lot in the local community,” Lozano said. “There was a gap when trying to connect to local Latino youth.”

She said she hopes the gap will shrink by promoting higher education among Latinos, often underrepresented on college campuses. Lozano added that the hassles of admission, financial aid and adjusting to a new lifestyle are reasons Latino students may feel intimidated by college.

Jonathan Brito, sophomore in LAS, added that this conference is a great opportunity to learn about attending college.

“Some of the students come here wondering what exactly we do around here,” Brito said.” They think ‘Yeah, we need to go to college,’ but then they don’t know what life in college is like. But we can show them a lot of what happens here: how to set up a student organization or how to do things to get you into college and not just live here, but be here.”

This was Danville High School’s first time attending the conference.

Alberto Bello, mentor at Danville High School, helped found the Hispanic Leadership Consulate at the school. The club’s goal is to keep Latino students interested in academics, keeping them on the track to earn their high school diplomas and look into careers.

“We were invited by Ms. Lozano,” Bello said. “She had heard through an acquaintance what we were doing in Danville with the Latino students.”

Bello said it was the club’s commitment to helping Latino students at Danville that caught the eye of Lozano.

Lozano said the growth of this event over its first four years has been impressive. With an increasing Latino population in the region, it was necessary to increase the number of schools invited.

“When we first started in April 2007, we only had 75 students from Champaign-Urbana,” she said. “This year we have over 160 students registered.”

Lozano said this conference has been successful because of positive reactions from the students. Organizers emphasize this as an engaging opportunity to interact with Latino college students and another chance to see the campus.

Brito has volunteered twice for this conference because of its atmosphere.

“You get to meet a lot of high school students,” he said. “It reminds you of when you were in high school, what with the little cliques and such. Before you know it, the students start talking to you and making jokes, getting to know you. You just can’t describe it.”

Bello said there was a “positive and wonderful atmosphere” and he hopes to be back next year.

“I hope this trip becomes a yearly tradition (for Danville High School),” he said. “Many excellent resources and great opportunities are here.”