From local news coverage of WSU's Education is the Future workshop...

The "Education is the Future" workshop was aimed at helping the families of Pasco students prepare their children for higher learning.

The goal was to help them "realize that college is no longer an option, it's a necessity," said JR Gomez, program coordinator for the university's Early Outreach program.

Gomez put the workshop together. Sponsors included RBC Wealth Management and College Spark Washington.

Sessions were planned all day at the Richland campus. Students got to check out some of the facilities, including the nursing lab, and play games to get them thinking about college.

Read the full Tri-City Herald story about the event.

In the fall of 2005 under the direction of politics professor Paul Apostolidis, Whitman College undergraduates completed the initial report on The State of the State for Washington Latinos. It was the first-ever widely inclusive account of social and political conditions for Latinos in Washington. Spanning issues ranging from education to health insurance, from farm labor to housing, and from voting rights to domestic violence, the 2005 report showed graphically that the challenges and inequalities facing Washington Latinos are multiple, interwoven, and deeply entrenched.

The State of the State for Washington Latinos: 2006 dramatically expands the scope of the earlier inquiry, supplementing the first report with an entirely new array of research on pressing issues that affect Latinos and all residents of this state. A second group of advanced and highly motivated undergraduates at Whitman College conducted the inquiries.

The project has new funding from the Community Based Research project at Princeton University. In the fall of 2008 students will engage in research to create The State of the State for Washington Latinos: 2008.

Pasco School District's Valerie Aragon was named the Outstanding Latino/a Educator of the Year by the Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber on Sunday, April 6th. Aragon currently is principal at Whittier Elementary, and was lauded by her district for her quest for effective teaching strategies and attention to detail.

Whittier Elementary is home to outstanding family involvement programs that have been recognized nationally by Johns Hopkins University. The Breakfast and a Book school program encourages parents to come and read with their children every Thursday while they have breakfast together and Every Minute Counts—a program that invites family members to attend school anytime during the day and logs each minute. For the past two years the Every Minute Counts program has logged more than 25,000 volunteer minutes—impressive for a school that in past years had trouble involving parents in school. Family math nights, reading activities, and concerts are all filled to capacity thanks to the welcoming environment she and her staff create. 

The class will be presented by Jenaro E. Castańeda, a Business Development Analyst, he will walk you through:

• The essential steps for starting a small business.
• The benefits of OMWBE certification.
• The OMWBE Linked Deposit Program.