Endicott Community Members Team Up to Support Amplify Latinx Conference
The team is gearing up for the second day of the Conference, which will introduce new speakers who represent all areas of the Latinx community, such as political and community leaders, artists, and advocates.
7/23/2020
Hosted by Endicott College’s Misselwood Events, the first day of the Amplify Latinx Conference was a great success. The team is gearing up for the second day of the conference, which will introduce new speakers—such as recent candidate for U.S. President Julián Castro and actress Diane Guerrero. The goal of the conference is to inspire, inform, and empower members of the Latinx community, and this year’s focus is on “identifying the key policy issues for the Massachusetts Latinx community that will become part of a shared policy agenda.” The event features speakers from all areas of the Latinx community, such as political and community leaders, artists, and advocates—like Alumna Bianca Robinson M’18 who delivered a Fire Starter speech at last week’s event. Misselwood was made aware of this event by Sendy Vauhgn Suazo, Community Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator for the Van Loan School of Professional Studies. Suazo notes that “The Audio Visual department and Misselwood Events are managing all of the logistics in regards to hosting the Zoom session, managing the breakout sessions and the transitions between speakers.” Members of those teams saw “a real sense of community—participants were very active in the chat, often praising the various speakers, and saying hello. There was a balance of motivating ‘Fire Starters’ like Bianca sharing quick moving stories, data-based presentations from places like the Mauricio Gaston Institute, and a variety of performers celebrating the Latinx culture through poetry and music.”, says Delia Day, Corporate Event Sales Manager for Misselwood Events.
A few years back, Suazo attended one of Amplify’s Cafecitos—or coffee chats—which is a speaker series that connects Latinx leaders with members the community—effectively creating opportunities for informative and empowering conversations. Creating an impactful dialog between the leaders and members of the Latinx community is something Suazo is passionate about. Suazo’s parents immigrated to the Unites States from Honduras, and although she was born in the U.S., she began to recognize, “an inequality of opportunities for children in families like mine”, at a very early age. Suazo has since dedicated her life to “finding more resources for the Afro-descendant and Latinx communities through community organizing, policy development, politics, and education.” Following the Cafecito, Suazo saw an opportunity to support the growth of her community, and she decided to become actively engaged with Amplify. She is volunteering at her third Amplify Latinx Conference, and says, “My job is to work with the ambassadors to ensure that the event logistics are being supported and that the chats are running smoothly. I also make sure that the breakout rooms are being recorded, and that the needs of all the participants and presenters are being met.” Suazo is very happy with how day-one of the Conference went and was glad to see members of the Endicott community in attendance. “Seeing Endicott participants shows me that the College wants to get to know the Latinx community.”
“My father always says this—in activism there are many players, there are some people on the front lines, there are others who support financially, and others who write about it. All of us have a part to play, we all just need to figure out which part is the right one for us.” She continues on to say, “What Endicott is doing—supporting Amplify with audio/visual and virtual support—it shows how we as an institution support diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as the members of the Endicott community.
Join the conversation and register now for Amplify Latinx!