You can change the life of a young person in your community forever this summer. Help send talented high school students from across our region to the Virginia Hispanic Youth Symposium.

VHYS brings Virginia high school students together with Hispanic professionals and Hispanic Youth Symposium staff to give them the motivation and resources to go to college and pursue a professional career.

Our students are from families of modest means. Sixty percent will be the first in their family to attend college. While all are bright, few have the role models or resources to go to college.

In just four days, VHYS changes all that. Students spend time with Hispanic professionals who can show them what they can become -- doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and leaders in other professions. Often the students form long-term mentoring relationships with these Hispanic leaders.

In VHYS workshops, students get the knowledge and resources to turn their dreams into a college degree. They learn how to:

• choose and apply to a college
• handle an admissions interview
• obtain scholarships
• complete the financial aid form
• become a success in their freshman year

VHYS works: 81% of our students have earned or are working toward a bachelor's degree.

As one of our applicants explains, "I want to prove to others that college is made for everyone, even for disadvantaged groups. The community that surrounds me is not the best place to raise a child, because we are fighting a war, not against terrorists but against the gangsters and the drug dealers. I will be the first generation in my family to go to college. I will yell out "Si se Puede" during my college graduation and encourage everyone to follow their dreams."

Another component of VHYS is to give back to the community. The students learn by the example set by the professionals who volunteer at the Symposium. These leaders explain how community service helped make them the success they are.

But I need your help today to make the VHYS experience possible for young Hispanics in Virginia. It costs $1,000 per attendee and most of our students are able to come because of scholarships made possible by people like you. Please make a tax-deductible gift of $25, $50, $100 or more today to send students to this summer's Symposium.

Make a tax-deductible donation today to send a young scholar to the Virginia Hispanic Youth Symposium!