The two largest issues facing the Hispanic community are education and foreign policy, said Fernando Rovelo, a graduate assistant and a doctoral student in Spanish.
Rovelo's speech Monday marked the kick-off of Latino Awareness Month activities.
"Education forms a backdrop of everything you need," Rovelo said. "Hispanic children are not receiving the education needed to compete in the 21st century."
Rovelo said that low standardized test scores and a high percentage of high school Hispanic dropouts are evidence that Latinos are not ready to face the working world successfully.
The biggest way to solve this problem is to teach students bilingualism, Rovelo said, especially to Hispanic immigrants.
That way, he said, communication is easier.
A multicultural curriculum can also give Hispanics and other students a better education, he said.
"All students have to take some classes in diversity to integrate (into other races)," Rovelo added. "We need to teach Americans they don't have to be afraid of us (Hispanics).
"We need to break all stereotypes we have of all races," he said.
Rovelo also said the United States' foreign policy affects Hispanics because of the race's quickly growing population.
Hispanics are now the largest minority in the U.S., he said.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census report, 32.8 million Latinos live in America, and that number is rising.
This large population of Hispanics creates a huge economic market for the U.S., Rovelo said.
By 2010, it is predicted that the U.S. will be selling more products to Latin America than to Europe and Japan combined, he said.
Joe Flores, a member of the Latino Student Union, said he hopes that this and other Latino Awareness Month events will help students learn about Hispanic culture.
"A lot of this stuff is the more familiar you are (with Hispanic culture), the more you get out of it," Flores said. "But I think we have programs that will help people respond to Latino culture."
Flores said events such as the cultural dinner and salsa workshop draw in a diverse range of students.
"Some students don't understand the concept of diversity," Rovelo said. Students might think that diversity means having numerous distinctions in a group, but diversity is really about integrating those differences to learn about each other, he said.
"There's a huge spectrum we need to pay attention to," Rovelo said.
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