Eastside Community Bank Now Home to Center to Empower Latino Students
Pan American Bank and non-profit partner to produce programs to highlight the path to a higher education.
By Paul Aranda Jr, EGP Staff Writer
On a cold and rainy Friday night in East Los Angeles, local civic leaders gathered under a covered tent at Pan American Bank headquarters to honor a Montebello High School teacher’s effort’s to increase the Latino graduation rate through a pioneering Web site. Armando Sanchez founded the Latino Scholastic Achievement Corporation (LSAC) in 1992 as a means to deliver vital college application and enrichment services to his students and others in the local community.
Through the organization’s Web site http://LatinoGraduate.net/, Sanchez and a team of paid staff and volunteers produce a weekly hour-long broadcast aimed at increasing the number of Latinos who graduate from colleges and universities. The ceremony on Feb 5 also served as a public celebration of LSAC’s new studio at Pan American.
Local Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-32) escaped the snowstorm that shut down Washington D.C. last week to present Sanchez with a Congressional Certificate of Recognition. Chu’s appearance was not lost on those in attendance.
“I don’t know what member of Congress would drive out to the middle of East Los Angeles during a downpour,” said Jesse Torres, president and CEO of Pan American Bank. “This is a sign of a true leader.”
Chu cited the years she spent as a college professor at East Los Angeles College for her support of Sanchez’s efforts to build college awareness in the community.
“This event is truly a labor of love,” Chu said. “It is tremendous what has been accomplished so far.”
Chu praised the community bank for offering its space for a studio to reach local youth to promote higher education.
“This will expand [Sanchez’s] work,” Chu said. “We know that young Latinos can finish a college education and reach their full potential.”
Chu cited Congress’ recent efforts to increase college enrollments for all qualified students: The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act provides provisions that simplify financial aid applications and keeps interest-rates for student-loans low. The bill also provides community colleges with funds to increase non-traditional programs such as those that feature night and weekend classes.
While Chu highlighted what members of Congress can do to increase Latino college graduation rates, the ceremony highlighted the efforts community-based organizations can have on a local level. Pan American donated unused office space in the rear of the bank, which has been remodeled into a control room to produce a live Web broadcast that will expand beyond educational programs to feature other issues related to the local community.
“This is your broadcasting station,” Sanchez told the audience. “You tell us what the needs are and we’ll figure out how to put it out to the world through the world-wide-web.”
Today, Latinograduate.net provides local youth with a public forum to watch and listen as successful Latino college graduates share personal tips on how to succeed in higher education through programs such as a Latino and Latina Role Models series.
Notable guest who have appeared in programs include Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina and former New Mexico governor and presidential candidate, Bill Richardson.
Sanchez, an economics teacher at Montebello High for over 30 years, created LSAC based on private conversations he used to have with his peers who shared similar backgrounds as Latino college graduates.
“We were talking about ourselves in a beautiful way,” Sanchez said.
LSAC previously produced its broadcasts out of a smaller studio in downtown Los Angeles. Sanchez said its new location allows LSAC to directly reach its targeted audience.
“We wanted to be closer to the community,” Sanchez said. “East Los Angeles was a more natural setting for us. The players now are the community members.”
Jesse Torres, president and CEO of Pan American Bank, cited the partnership as part of a larger effort to bring the bank closer to its neighbors. Torres said he jumped at the opportunity to take over the bank’s operations last summer because it would allow him to return to his home. Born in White Memorial Hospital and “raised in the shadows of Garfield High School,” Torres wanted to utilize his new position to help the community.
“So many of us who graduate [college] yearn to come back to the community that raised us,” Torres said.
Torres hopes the partnership provides LSAC with a stronger base to launch its programs.
“The work they were doing wasn’t getting the recognition it deserved,” Torres said.
Torres said he envisioned a local studio that produces content that highlights the efforts community-based organizations perform on a daily basis.
In addition to the grand visions for the studio, the day-to-day operations of producing that content provides local students with a rare opportunity to build experience in a growing field. Sanchez counts many current and former Montebello High students as partners.
Adrian Martinez, 18, first learned of the station in Sanchez’s economic class as a junior. He soon enrolled in a film and television production course offered through the school’s ROP program. For the past six months, Martinez, now a photography student at Rio Hondo College, spends four hours each week as a producer at the studio.
For Esteban Torres, 17, the station provided him and his bandmates a unique opportunity to record music for broadcast on the Internet. Torres, a Montebello High senior, volunteered to record theme music for the studio. Torres said his band hopes to have its track for the studio completed at the end of the month. Torres plans to study music and film score at Los Angeles Community College next year. The aspiring musician plans to study Jazz at UC Berkeley and then teaching at Julliard, the famed music school in New York City.
To view new and archived programs of LSAC, visit www.latinograduate.net.
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February 11, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Eastern Group Publications, Inc.
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