Education Outreach

The purpose of the Education Outreach Committee is to facilitate HBAA's efforts to support and encourage the continued education of financially disadvantaged central Texas Latino youth by becoming the liaison between HBAA and Hispanic majority middle schools through coordination of an Essay Competition.

There are eighteen middle schools in the Austin Independent School District with ten of those schools having a majority of Hispanic students. HBAA members go to the five middle schools with the highest percentage of Hispanic students and speak to the 8th graders about the importance of staying in school and achieving their high school diploma. The HBAA speakers work at motivating the 8th graders to do well in school and to work towards attending college. Finally, the HBAA speakers present the essay competition to the students. The topic of the essay is typically related to the importance of increasing diversity in the legal profession. After discussing the topic of the essay, the students are left to complete their essays and enter the competition.

One student wins from each middle school. The winner of the competition gets to attend the Hispanic Heritage Luncheon and is recognized at the luncheon when they receive their award. The general goal of the Committee is to be "HBAA's Outreach" to the local community and specifically to the financially disadvantaged Latino youth of our community to let them know that we support and encourage their continued education beyond high school and beyond undergraduate studies.

Our Education Outreach Committee Chair is Vanessa A. Gonzalez.  For more information on this committee, please email HBAA.