Emerging BCC Latino leaders share thoughts on debut development program

Four years is a long time in community college terms but it was so worth it to keep on working at bringing this program to Bergen Community College. I got to know so much about the college and campus organizing just by recruiting advisors, speakers and participants to the College Leadership Development Program. 2014 CLDP @ Bergen Cohort members are enjoying participation tremendously, and the speakers we’ve brought in are enjoying us!

Thanks to USHLI for dreaming up a really good program and providing us with guidance to get it off the ground, to our speakers, donors and advisors, to BCC for hosting our evening workshops and to Kimi Wei of The Wei for so much help.
~ Jorge Ivan Gomez Wei

Members of the first CLDP @ BERGEN Cohort share thoughts about our participation.

Jorge Ivan Gomez Wei
There were times in the past four years I wasn’t sure I could actually get this program started in Bergen. Now, I’m so glad I didn’t give up. I put together a great group of students and we’re not only learning, we’re interacting. And, our speakers are imparting some very useful information.

Luis Ariel Lopez Wei
This is a great program, especially for a first semester student like myself. I’m happy to be a part of it and honored to have helped put it together. It’s been very informative. I know so much about the functions of school administrators and where to go for help if I need it.

Mario Cuevas
These CLDP meetings have been a great oppurtinity to learn and better understand the services that are provided by the college. Services we are never aware of until it is thrown into our faces. Also I have enjoyed the time spent with old and new friends alike. This most definitely needs to be a yearly thing, which I hope grows.

Nora Figueroa
It’s great to be part of the USHLI CLDP program. I have enjoyed every CLDP session that we have had because I got to learn something new about every speaker at the meetings. I like the fact that all the speakers have brought something to the table, either information that is going to be helpful for our group’s members in our near future, or a personal experience that we can learn a lesson from. In every session an interesting topic is brought up and we all gain something from it. The sessions have been not only informative but also fun and I am sure its not only me who feels this way … I’m pretty sure the rest of the group does too.

Kevin Calle
I really enjoy this group because it’s so informative. It’s educating me about opportunities out there for scholarships and financial aid, which in a lot of ways are tied together. Many of the speakers have tackled these issues and give us the facts about them. In a way, the speakers are putting the path to success right in our hands.

Santos Garcia, Jr.
This is an awesome program for learning all about my school. I love it.

Johnnie Orozco
I strongly believe that Ivan overcame many difficult obstacles by recruiting and successfully engaging interested and capable members to this program. I am glad that the CLDP program has taken the initiative to connect Hispanic students with faculty members who can educate them on different policies that are set to benefit us and listen to the problems we have, so they can create new policies that are sensitive to issues that Hispanic students share and increase the percentage of graduation rates. As a Puerto Rican student in his third year at Bergen Community College I wish program like CLPSD had been available to me earlier on. However, moving forward I feel more comfortable about engaging administrative staff members with my individual needs.

José Molina
This is a great program. I believe every student should be part of it and become more familiar with everything it has to offer. The meetings are full of so much information that will definitely help every student in their college experience and lead to future advancement. Great program overall.

Ricardo Montero Hernandez
Apart from the positive and educational environment present at every session, every member of CLDP is willing and urgent to listen and ask questions, the sessions are engaging and educational, with each speaker always bringing something new to the already informative sessions. However, if one word was used to describe CLDP, it is definitely “Inspiring.”
The sessions, the speakers and my fellow members have inspired me to become a better leader and a better role model, at times showing me new paths to my uncertain but hopeful future.

Natasha Pineiros
I think the USHLI sessions are a great idea to let students know what goes on in Bergen, who is in charge of these important programs and how they can take advantage of the resources that we have available to us.

Jefferson A. Guerrero
I was very excited about the sustainability speakers – that really motivates me. This is the future and I am too. It’s good to keep the earth clean. And I like technology … to create technology and new devices without hurting the environment is an essential concept. About the CLDP program itself, it’s about the Hispanic community, which is growing in the United States. People don’t know everything the Hispanic community can do, and we would like to open people’s eyes to see how we can help make changes. We’re not just about making money and sending it to our families back home. We’re about making positive change here.

Please help us with a donation!

If you can help these deserving students with a donation please contact Ivan by email, @ivanwei on Twitter, Facebook, @kimiwei or call 201-477-8711. We’ll send you our fundraising packet and information on how to make a tax-deductible donation to the program.

Learn more about this program