On April 4, nine members of GOAL! – ESPN’s employee resource group dedicated to serving Hispanic employees and those interested in the culture – attended the HISPA.org Youth Conference in New York City.
The event, held at John Jay College, aimed to inspire 120 middle school students to learn about the importance of higher education and career opportunities.
Along with other companies’ Hispanic employee resource groups, GOAL members spent the day with the students, sharing stories and inspiring them to excel and plan for higher education. The highlight of the event was the interactive workshops for the kids.
ESPN’s workshop was titled “ESPN The University.” GOAL members shared their diverse career experiences while also engaging the kids in an open discussion about the different job roles they would take if they had the opportunity to work at ESPN.
ESPN Deportes’ Sonia Gomez, director of programming, and Provi Reyes-Pugh, director of ad sales, are co-leaders of GOAL!
“We had an unforgettable time at the Conference. The students were very excited to meet us and very interested in hearing more about our backgrounds,” Gomez said.
“The most rewarding part of the event was being able to connect with the kids,” said Reyes-Pugh. “They identified with our Latino backgrounds and were very open in sharing with us their thoughts about their ambitions with education and professional careers.”
In addition to the workshops, the students had the opportunity to participate in a panel with young college students with similar backgrounds and heard the personal stories of successful professionals.
The event closed with a special tour of Columbia University and wise words from Carlos Ojeda, CEO of CoolSpeak. Ojeda is a Latino motivational speaker who inspired the students through his own story of sacrifice and triumph.
ESPN GOAL!, with the support of ESPN’s Corporate Outreach, partnered with HISPA in an effort to encourage ESPN employees to become role models to inspire and motivate students’ performance and achievement by raising awareness about the importance of education as a means to succeed professionally and live up to their full potential.
