{"id":15087,"date":"2025-01-30T19:33:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T19:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=15087"},"modified":"2025-01-30T19:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T19:33:47","slug":"the-annual-aspiring-youth-minority-youth-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/the-annual-aspiring-youth-minority-youth-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"The Annual Aspiring Youth Minority Youth Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Alexandria Leatherberry<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The Truth Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Toledo Excel held the 41st Annual Aspiring Minority Youth conference at the University of Toledo Student Union Saturday January 25. The conference has held space for the youth to be empowered and connect with community leaders since 1984. The conference is a highlighted youth<br \/>\ndevelopment experience for their community partnerships and drive for exceptional leadership through workshops, discussions and notable keynote addresses. Past conferences have included speakers such as: Yusef Salaam; member of the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five, and actor Hill Harper.<\/p>\n<p>Leading the keynote address this year was award winning actress and author, Diane Guerrero. A star of &#8220;Orange is the New Black;\u201d Disney&#8217;s &#8220;Encanto;\u201d and CW&#8217;s &#8220;Jane the Virgin,&#8221; Guerrero shares her experience with government deportation actions in her book <em>In the Country We Love<\/em>, where she details the effects of such governmental actions on family separations.<\/p>\n<p>Guerrero shared with the attendees of the Aspiring Minority Youth Conference her endeavors to make her experience of family separation \u201cworth it.\u201d She described how she found confidence thorough the acceptance and awareness of her ability and talent to achieve amidst social and economic inequalities. \u201cNow I get to enjoy who I am and live authentically\u201d said Guerrero.<\/p>\n<p>Following Diane Guerrero\u2019s address, Rhonda Sewell, the Toledo Museum of Art\u2019s director of Advocacy and External Affairs, led a discussion with Jason Reynolds, a number one New York Times bestselling author.<\/p>\n<p>Reynolds award-winning written work includes, <em>Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You<\/em> (with Ibram X. Kendi), <em>All American Boys<\/em> (with Brendan Kiely); and <em>Long Way<\/em><em> Down<\/em>. \u00a0Most notably Reynolds authored two books of the MARVEL comic book series: <em>Miles Morales-Spiderman<\/em>. Reynolds proposed that attendees not limit their ideas of achievement based upon systematic merit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf any of you happen to not be 4.5 students, you can be excellent too,\u201d said Reynolds reminding the attendees that there are measurements of success based upon character and ethics.<\/p>\n<p>The former members of Toledo Excel, along with Director David Young, closed out the ceremony with final remarks. The conference in fellowship ended so that attendees were allowed to meet the star-studded guest of the session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alexandria Leatherberry The Truth Reporter Toledo Excel held the 41st Annual Aspiring Minority Youth conference at the University of Toledo Student Union Saturday January 25. The conference has held space for the youth to be empowered and connect with community leaders since 1984. The conference is a highlighted youth development experience for their community [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[278],"class_list":["post-15087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15089,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15087\/revisions\/15089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15087"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}