Puerto Rico Leadership Conference
April 26th, 2008I don’t usually post to this blog since it’s for the national officers. However, this time I’m actually traveling with one of them and I wanted to give a report about what he’s been doing. I’m not one of the national staff members who does much traveling, but I am the only one who speaks Spanish. Since I wanted to bring a student who could also speak Spanish, I asked Carlos Galván to come with me. Luckily for us, his advisor, Mr. Roberto Salas also came along.
We arrived in Puerto Rico on Monday, April 21. On Tuesday, we visited two schools. The first was the Escuela Superior Vocacional República de Costa Rica in the city of Caguas. This is the school where the 2007-08 state officer team attends. In Puerto Rico, they don’t elect officers from all around the island. Instead, the various regions submit a team from a single school per region. It’s kind of a winner take all situation. Carlos and I wondered if it might not be better to have representation from each of the areas, but we were assured that this has been tried and did not work well. Anyway, we toured this school and met many different teachers and students responsible for the career and technical education programs in the school.
Next, we drove to the Escuela Superior Vocacional Petra Zenón de Fabrey in the city of Fajardo. We got to tour the school and meet with various instructors. We also spent a significant amount of time with the school principal. The graphic design teacher gave us some beautiful posters designed there in the school by the students.
Next we went to the Department of Education where we met with Mr. Bienvenido Mojíca who is the state director. We also met up with the assistant secretary for Career and Technical Education.
On Wednesday, we had a couple of hours before the conference began so we took a short trip over to El Yunque, a pristine rainforest about 40 minutes outside of San Juan. At the top of the mountain, there was a tower we climbed. From the top, you could see for 10 miles.
The conference began that evening. Carlos was asked to give a motivational speech to the regional officers in attendance. That night, only about 100 people were there. An additional 200 arrived the next morning, Carlos spoke to them and got both the advisors and the students excited about what they are doing.

The next day, they began their fall meeting. There was a brief talent show before the meeting began which was very cool and really fun. Our favorite was a young man who sang a reggaeton style song about SkillsUSA and vocational education. If you don’t know what reggaeton is, google it. It needs to be heard to be understood. Carlos, Mr. Salas (who is Carlos’ advisor) and I each got a chance to speak. Luckily for me and Mr. Salas, Carlos was allotted the most time so we didn’t have to speak as long as he did.
Each of the regions gave reports on their activities for the year. Again, we were impressed with how much community service they are doing. Finally, the three regions running for office gave their presentations about why they should be elected. Then the voting began. Bayamón was the school that won the election and they may be attending nationals this year. Traditionally, Puerto Rico brings the outgoing officer team president, but this year they may bring the whole new team.
Carlos and Mr. Salas both were a tremendous help here. It was great to have them and we are all very proud of how Carlos represents SkillsUSA and the entire National Officer Team.