Potter Jr. High boys connect with Latino role models

FALLBROOK – On Oct. 5, 26 seventh and eighth grade students from Potter Junior High School attended the Encuentros Conference at Mira Costa College in Oceanside. For more than 20 of the students, this was their first time coming to the Encuentros Conference and for many of them this was their first time visiting a college.

“I am interested in the medical field so the presentation from the nurse helped teach me more about the profession,” said Erick Ortiz, an 8th grader at Potter.

The purpose of the Encuentros Conference is to help provide motivation for Latino boys to finish high school and to complete college. Started by a group of North County Latino educators, the conference is a way to address the high dropout rates of Latino boys. Nationally, the Latino graduation rate is only 57 percent in comparison to 88 percent of non-Latinos.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Encuentros Conference which had over 600 high school and middle school students from throughout the county sign up for the event. Artie Ojeda from NBC News 7 in San Diego was the emcee of the event which included alumni from the conference who had graduated from prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley and Harvard.

Students were treated to a college exploratory fair and were exposed to professionals from a variety of fields including chemists, engineers, college presidents, attorneys, architects, and scientists. Students were able to touch a human brain, examine microbes, and look at a hybrid engine.

With the focus on STEM fields or science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, many of the students saw hands-on demonstrations in areas such as architecture or molecular biology that they had not been exposed to previously.

“I really liked the presentation on architecture and they were showing us computer models of buildings that could move and rotate,” said Anthony Long, a Potter student.