DiversityInc - September/October 2009

Bridging the

Lat inos

Gap

for

BY JEN A. MILLER

DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti is on the board of trustees at Rutgers University. Isaac Lara, a senior at Columbia University, had a front-row seat o the inner-workings of state government last summer as an intern in New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine’s office. The experience

profoundly impacted him and helped shape the aspirations of this

future Latino leader.

“I learned a lot about myself and … what I want to do in my future,” he says.

Lara was a participant in the 10-week Latino Fellows Public Policy Leadership Institute program, run by the Center for Strategic Urban Community Leadership at the Camden Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The program is designed to promote professional and academic advancement among Latino college juniors and seniors in the state. Since its inception in 1988, about 500 students have gained career advice and direction through internships and instruction intended to help them understand the policy process.

Although this program is based in New Jersey, it serves as a model for Latino advancement that can be adopted by other institutions throughout the United States. In fact, Rutgers has partnered with the National Puerto Rican Coalition to replicate this Latino leadership program in New York, California and Washington, D.C.