HISPA aims to recruit leaders to help mold young minds.

Hispanics Inspiring Students Performance and Achievement (HISPA) is a New Jersey based non-profit organization with young children in mind. The goals of the organization is to unite high achieving hispanic professionals with hispanic youth. These professionals travel to schools, invite students to their workplace, and get involved on university campuses to share their stories. They demonstrate leadership and inspire young children as role models.

The Role Model Program Kick-Off and Recruiting Events can be found in New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Florida. Young hispanic students typically do not pursue higher education because there is a lack of role models to follow. Through the Role Model Program, corporate visits, and youth conferences, HISPA is able to bridge the gap and bring educational programs into those communities.

Communications and Development Manager Kelly Grossman is delighted with HISPA's current outcome. "We've recruited 2,500 role models, we have made over 750 classroom visits, over 20 youth conferences, and we have reached over 9,000 students to date. Every year it gets bigger and bigger," said Grossman.

HISPA programs target middle school students. Studies suggest early intervention with the help of a role model can help improve the pursuit of higher education.

The New Jersey event featured Cid Wilson, President and CEO of the Hispanic Association, Rene Herrera, Global Senior IT Audit Manger of Office Depot, Lidia Santos, Director of Systems Programming at UPS, Yalitza Torres, Principal of Jerome Dunn Academy, and Tomas Porters, Vice President of Senior Community Development at Wells Fargo. Each panelist spoke about their journey, and how they could help.

Engineer Jose Sanchez also spoke about how he got involved with HISPA and is now a Role Model. "A good friend of mine from Rutgers is involved with helping out lower income students in Philadelphia and she sent me an email about it and I decided to come by."