Nathalie Agudelo

President

I am interested in becoming part of the Alliance of Latino and Latin American Students given that my career goal is to work empowering Latinos in the United States. As an immigrant, I understand the importance of strengthening the community to get their voices heard and serving in the ALAS board will allow me to put in practice the leadership and organizational skills I will need to accomplish my career goal. Participating in ALAS Board will be complementary to my classes at Wagner since I will be responsible for coordinating meetings and activities for the group. In addition, I will be working on developing programs in collaboration with other Wagner organizations which will help me to put in practice skills I have learned in class such as: negotiation skills.

My goals for ALAS is to continue the progress Nilbia and the other members of the board have been working on. Last year, ALAS had a conference about the Dream Act which was informative and raise awareness on the situation faced by undocumented students. If I get elected, I would want to have a continuation conference on the Dream Act given that some states are trying to pass the legislation as a state law.

I want to continue the focus ALAS has kept on issues that affect Latinos in the United States as well as issues that affect countries in Latin America. In addition, I would like for ALAS to be a medium through which all Wagner students disregarding their ethnicity learn about political innovations in Latin America.

The expectations I have for ALAS are to continue growing as a student organization and continue working in conjunction with other student organizations at Wagner. I want for ALAS to provide conferences and meetings that meet the expectations, needs and interests of students. If I become elected, my first step would be to create a survey to obtain information about topics of interest for students in Wagner (Latinos and non-Latinos). After I obtain the information I would discuss with the other board members to select what activities are feasible based on the topics and start planning. In addition, I will work on maintaining and strengthening the relationship ALAS has with other organizations through support and collaboration on different type of activities. Given that ALAS is an organization committed to providing information on Latin American Countries, one of my priorities will be to create a strong relationship with the International Public Service Organization (IPSA) since they have a strong mission and is correlated to the mission of ALAS (raising awareness of international public services issues). I will also foster relationships with other organizations since the mission of ALAS is related to the mission of other Wagner organizations such as education, health, criminal justice etc.