Pa ‘Delante-BE’YOND Change is described as being a Cross-Cultural Young Professionals/Student Leadership Association. The mission is to develop young leaders within the Latino/African American communities of Austin, MN and Tucson, AZ to become “change agents” within our communities. Our ultimate goal is to build inclusion and participation of our ethnically diverse populations. Youth Leadership Members of Pa’Delante/BE’YOND Change shall embody the pillars of Scholarship, Leadership and Involvement, Service and Brotherhood/Sisterhood to promote the values of unity, love and respect. Our desired goals are to see more representation of both Latino/Latina and African American groups within higher education and in the job market as well as bridging cultural knowledge and competence within all community groups, and building partnerships within local and ethnic groups, businesses and individuals.
Why Pa’Delante—BE’YOND Change?
Between African-American and Hispanic students, they are at the lower end of the performance scale than their non-Hispanic white peers (“Achievement Gap”). In today’s public education system, Latinos are by far the largest minority group, numbering more than 12.4 million in the country’s elementary, middle and high schools. Just 13 percent of Latinos have a bachelor’s degree, and only 4 percent have completed graduate or professional degree programs (U.S. Census Bureau). High levels of immigration and high birth rates have made Hispanics the nation’s biggest minority group, comprising 16% of the U.S. population as of 2010 (Fry).
Obama has challenged America to lead the world in the share of our population with a college degree by 2020. We cannot achieve this goal without significantly strengthening and expanding educational opportunities for all Latino students and African/students, from cradle through college and career (United States). Our Nation faces a dropout crisis. When 25 percent of our students—almost 40 percent of our black and Hispanic students—fail to graduate high school on time, we know that too many of our schools are failing to offer their students a world-class education. This is why we urge a movement to create catalyst of change by empowering our own students to become leaders in the community.
What Pa Delante – BE’YOND Change Wants to Do
Pa ‘Delante – BE’YOND Change wants to identity Latino/ African American (the 2 largest minority groups in the US) women and men to serve as “change agents” within their own community and working together to achieve the following goals. The goals and objectives of Pa ‘Delante – BE’YOND Change include serving as mentors through leadership, Connecting generations, bridge cultural knowledge and eliminate negative cultural perceptions both internal and external, promoting gender equality, building partnerships (profit, non-profit, individuals) to engage to the community as a whole, and creating awareness of cross cultural differences through educational workshops, events, and movements.