Latino Coalition elects new officers

Next year the Latino Coalition -- an umbrella organization for 19 Latino groups on campus -- will have not one but two people at its head. College juniors Vanessa Padelford and Jona Ludmir were elected Wednesday night to lead the organization for the upcoming year.

The new leadership plans to focus its efforts in two areas. First, they want to make sure that its constituent Latino groups remain strong and vibrant throughout the entire year. And second, they hope to work on extending LC's influence in the broader Latino community in Philadelphia.

Jesse Salazar, the organization's outgoing spokesman, praised the incoming board.

"I think that Jona and Vanessa are going to do a fantastic job," Salazar said. "They understand that the Latino community cannot be insular -- it has to be engaged with other students."

Padelford said that she plans to re-energize the Latino Coalition from the inside out. She wants to make sure that all of the groups remain active, as interest among some member groups waned during the past year.

"There is a need here [for the Latino community] to have strong unity and voice," Padelford said. "I feel it starts with the LC and the representatives on the board."

Ludmir agreed, adding that he and Padelford plan to encourage collaboration and event-planning. Collaboration, he said, would allow the different identities of the Latino community to be seen.

Another focus of the organization will be outreach to the Latino community outside of Penn.

In the upcoming semester, the new leadership hopes to work actively with Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a Philadelphia political organization. Citing disappointing statistics for the size of the Latino population at Penn, the new officers said that they plan to continue their efforts to recruit local Latino students to the University.

"If we are strong at the core, we are going to be strong at Penn and then after Penn's campus ... [we will] branch out into the community," Padelford said.

The leaders want to build on two projects that they have been involved with previously -- the Latino-Jewish partnership AAlianza! and the Latino Dialogue Institute, a discussion group exploring Latino issues.

Salazar said he thinks that Padelford and Ludmir's different backgrounds will enhance their ability to come up with constructive and collaborative solutions for the different problems that the Latino community continues to face.

Six other board members will join the new leaders. The political chairwoman for the group will be College junior Gabby McLane. The internal projects coordinators will be College juniors Daniel Chor and Aurelio Marquez.

College sophomores Carlos Hernandez and Veronica Polanco-Moreno were elected admissions chairs, and Wharton freshman Bernard Gutmann will be the organization's secretary.

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