LLP En Español

Verano Para Líderes (Summer for Leaders) is an intense seven-week youth empowerment program in Des Moines for Latino high school students who receive a scholarship for the completion of the program. Participants attend six hours a day, four days a week. The supervisors are college students who demonstrate an interest in improving the Latino community and who seek valuable experiential learning and a venue by which they can form connections to the Iowa community.

The program centers on five principal activities designed to accentuate academic achievement, social aptitude and responsibility, comfort with authority, and increased self-expectations in each student. These principal activities are the

1. Provecho Luncheons with community leaders,
2. A fundraiser planned and carried out by program participants,
3. The Iowa Latino Issues and Affairs Debate (ILIAD),
4. An educational trip to Chicago, and
5. Attendance at the National Council of La Raza national conference.

Many other activities such as computer classes, college tours, educational videos, developing library research skills, and mentoring of kindergarten children, serve to complement and enhance the skills developed through our principal activities.