The Issues I will Focus on

The three issues I’ll focus on as president are Hispanic dropouts, professional membership, and SHPE’s use of technologies.

As SHPE National President, the number one issue I want to focus on is the issue of Hispanic Dropouts in the United States. I strongly believe that if we don't do more about this problem, the very existence of the organization will be in jeopardy. My plan to tackle this issue will be to focus on creating more programs that exposes children to STEM at a younger age, such as middle school and elementary. I’ll also continue to ensure that we develop, support and maintain SHPE Jr. chapters across the nation. I’ll create a specialized task force consisting of the best minds in early childhood development to select or suggest the most effective programs across the nation and provide recommendations on how SHPE can make an immediate impact throughout the nation. I firmly believe that if we are graduating more Hispanics from High School, then there will be more members in the organization, but more importantly, the United States as a whole will be stronger for it.

The second issue I’ll focus on, is professional membership. I’ll put more resources into ensuring that the number of professional members increases to levels equal to that of the student membership. With over 400,000 Hispanic professionals in stem throughout the united states, it is inexcusable that our organization has only captured less than one percent of the potential membership. I intend to correct this in three ways.

• First, I’ll provide actual benefits that you the member can use. I’ll work with all our current IPCs and then will focus on commercial companies that are interested in capturing a part of the fastest growing segment of the united states. Reduced vacation and travel packages, low interest credit cards, and discounts on cars, computers, gas and even your groceries are just some of the benefits that other non-profit members enjoy today and that I’ll ensure are available to you as well.

• Second, I’ll ensure funding for all of our professional development programs and will begin a new line of professional certification and technical development series aimed at professionals that need more than just soft skills. My strategy to fund these and other professional programs, is to tap into the companies that want to develop a large customer base through our organization. What company wouldn’t want to have a hand in helping Hispanics across the nation achieve higher level positions and greater levels of education that provide them the means to buy their products.

• Third, I’ll change the thinking of the organization to focus more on family oriented national and regional events. Many times I have heard of outstanding leaders and passionate SHPE members having to pull back from the organization because SHPE separates them from their families and their commitments. I believe we can come up with ways to ensure that our national and regional programs allow SHPE professionals to afford to bring their families along with them and at a minimum provide events that families can participate in together while attending national and regional conferences.

The third issue I’ll focus on as SHPE national president is on SHPE's use of the technologies available to its users and to the organization. It is already apparent that we have members fully capable of implementing these technologies in ways that will be a benefit to the organization and its stakeholders. Also, our organization already has a Chief Information Officer that has begun to strategize on how SHPE can provide a flexible, adaptable open architecture that allows chapter and regional leaders to create and utilize the tools necessary to run a SHPE chapter in the 21st century. As national president, I promise to no longer allow SHPE to lag behind stuck in archaic technologies, but I’ll ensure that SHPE will strive to be at the forefront of technology in its use and development.