Rene Portillo attends national Latino leadership conference

2011 Aug 16

Rene Portillo of Aurora was one of 11 Aurora University students who traveled to the National Council of La Raza Conference in Washington, D.C., last month to attend leadership workshops and network with other Latino student leaders from across the country.

President Barack Obama spoke at the NCLR annual conference and National Latino Family Expo, the single largest national Latino event of the year. More than 25,000 participants attended. While in the nation's capital, Portillo and the other AU students also visited the office of U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren of Illinois and took a guided tour of the Pentagon.

Portillo presented a leadership development workshop, "Speak with Confidence y con ganas! (with gusto)," at the conference with the AU student team.

The conference included a leadership summit, a national program designed to create opportunities for Latino youth that will elevate their influence as leaders in the United States. To help pay expenses, students held fundraisers and received aid from AU, Aurora Township, Aurora Hispanic Heritage Advisory Board and NCLR Lideres Summit.