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The Hispanic Youth Symposium (HYS) is an annual event designed to encourage Hispanic teens to seek brighter futures for themselves and their families by staying in school. Using a bilingual format, the Symposium has three primary goals:

• mentoring/drop-out prevention
• pride in Latino culture/history
• encouraging students to pursue higher education

The symposium brings together Hispanic high school students from throughout Idaho to listen to motivational speakers and problem-solving skills, as well as to examine possible career paths for the future. The students compete in speech, talent, athletic and interactive skill contests for awards and scholarships.

The symposium grew out of a 1988 brainstorming session centered on ways to curb the alarming 60+ percent school dropout rate for Hispanic teens in Idaho. In 1990, about 100 students attended and a single $1000 scholarship was awarded. Since that time over 3000 students from throughout Idaho have attended. Each April 300 students come together in Sun Valley, where scholarships and prizes valued at over one million dollars have been awarded. The dropout rate for Idaho Hispanic students has improved, but is unacceptably high at nearly 29 percent. There are about 7500 Hispanic high school students in Idaho, 12 percent of the population. In 2001, nearly 1500 of those students wrote essays on why they wanted to be chosen to represent their schools at HYS.

Seventeen colleges and universities from the western states participated in the 2001 Symposium. These school recruit students for their colleges at the event. In addition to college scholarships, many business support attendance at a cost of $200 per student or make donations to the HYS scholarship fund of Gem State Diversity Initiatives (GSDI). The sponsorships and scholarship contributions are tax deductible, as GSDI is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. In 2001 these colleges, universities and businesses contributed over $401,000 in scholarships.

HYS is a collaborative effort between the public employers, federal management contractors, private industry, state and private educational institutions, and Hispanic organizations from throughout Idaho. Operational expenses for the Symposium are approved by the U.S. Department of Energy - Idaho Operations Office as part of annual budget allocation of the Idaho National Laboratory. The symposium has received national recognition from Fortune 500 corporations and has been replicated in youth initiatives in Arizona, California, Idaho, and Washington.