For anyone from the San Antonio Region (in and around San Antonio Proper) that is an Alum. NHIatSA is the local affiliate of The National Hispanic Institute (NHI), a non-profit parent youth volunteer group with over 23 years of entrepreneurship and innovative leadership targeting the needs of high ability Latino youth. Over the last ten years, NHIatSA has promoted leadership by examining the character, ethics, beliefs and morals of high achieving Latino Youth. Questions on the future of the Latino community using high standards of beliefs and character are the trademark of this effort. Each year youth participate in NHI stellar experiences such as The Great Debate for high school freshmen, which focus on communications and skills building, community service, cultural appreciation, leadership and character as well parent development. Students in this environment drive themselves to develop constituency and organizational protocols. They present proposals to advance the leadership and character of the Latino community, argue their ideas and concepts among their peers, and learn the art of problem solutions and conflict resolution as keys to successful participation in organized efforts. The experience is based on beliefs and standards of conduct forming a community that is reflective for the future. The exposure youth receive through NHI leadership compels them to address our nation’s constant demand for a skilled conscientious and intelligent work force. Latino community perspective, the training serves to address an urgent human need and a greater use of intellectual leadership resources of youth preparing to more effectively contribute to the American experience while also tackling the challenges that Latinos as a whole face in a changing 21st century world. By far the most significant change that occurs is in their thinking. They become leaders by undergoing important changes in their psychological character and emotional make-up and perceived roles in the larger society. Instead of continuing to see themselves as “people of color” or “minorities,” there is a transition that moves them from a thinking of dependency on the larger society to a thinking of self direction, from expecting others to create the rules for them to becoming their own rule makers, and from looking to others for direction to relying on their instincts and astuteness for the right decisions based on respect, ethics and the common good. They also learn that excellence demands personal commitment and accountability and that intellectual development represents the ultimate key to personal freedom. This leadership training not only represents important core values and beliefs but it also provides youth with the means to garner the behaviors and attitudes that lead them to success in their personal endeavors, career pursuits, and leadership roles in the community. NHIatSA and the National Hispanic Institute work to engage kids in the global Latino Community. The programs go beyond the borders of the mainland United States and into other parts of the global Latino community such as México, Argentina, España, and Puerto Rico to name a few. We urge students to begin to view themselves through a different set of social lenses and shift the paradigm by which they view the Latino Community. Furthermore there is a call for these youth to become crafters of a new tomorrow as they are already leaders in their own right. Because NHI believes in creating an environment of high standards we locally, constantly surround the students amongst staff that has been through these programs and continues to be involved in new and innovative ways. The staff consists of individuals that are graduates or current students at some of the top institutions of higher learning and professional schools in the country such as:
Stanford University
Yale University
Rice University
St. Mary's University
Southwestern University
Princeton University
Trinity University
Colorado State University
Tufts University
Ball State
El Instituto y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Mexico, El Tec (ITESM)
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Columbia University
Brown University
Notre Dame
(and various others...) Some of the schools with which we've worked:
Alamo Heights
Antonian College Prep. Brackenridge High School
Business Careers High School
Central Catholic High School
Churchill HS, Clark High School
Communications Arts
Edison High School
Fox Tech. High School
Harlandale High School
Holmes High School
Holy Cross High School
Health Careers High School
Incarnate Word High School
Jefferson High School
John F. Kennedy High School
John Jay High School
Keystone
Lanier High School
Marshall High School
Memorial High School
O'Connor High School
Providence High School
Reagan High School
Robert E. Lee High School (Intl. School of the Americas)
St. Anthony's Catholic High School
Southwest High School
Southside High School
Taft High School
Pearsall High School
Pleasanton High School
Truman Middle School
Wrenn Middle School.
