Original Link: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0625nclr-student.html#
Some think price tag too high at conference
Yvonne Wingett
The
With
a price tag of $250, some Valley college students said they're being priced out
of the National Council of La Raza's annual
convention in downtown
For students like Gabriel Cruz, ponying up the money
meant dipping into his tuition money for classes next year at
"It's a little steep," said Cruz, 24, of
Conference organizers point out that this years' student leadership conference
will be their best attended ever, with more than 225 students from across the
nation attending the Líderes Summit, or Leadership
Summit.
They acknowledge that the price tag could be too high for some students but
point out that there are plenty of opportunities for students to volunteer at
the conference.
"Clearly it's not just something they can whip out of their pockets,"
said Marco Davis, NCLR's director of leadership
development, pointing out that the price for 14- to 25-year-olds was dropped from
$300 at last year's conference in Austin.
With an agenda packed with panels, workshops and extensive networking
opportunities, the price is "not completely unreasonable," he added.
The bulk of the cost,
Still, for students like Jim Lugo, 20, of
"That was a big issue, (and) that's why we have a limited number of people
going," said
Washington, D.C.-based NCLR did give out $11,000 in scholarships for the event.
Members of
"If you do 25 hours of volunteer work, you get everything covered,"
said Dominic Martinez, 22, a member of ODPhi who now
works at Univision in
Reach the reporter at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-4712.