Conexion - High School Career Fair @ LCPA

March 13, 2015

Cisco’s Conexion spearheads another successful career fair at the Latino College Preparatory Academy in San Jose, CA. On Friday March 13th over 100 high school students and professionals gathered as Conexion and the Latino College Preparatory Academy (LCPA) produced another successful career fair. The day started with a warm welcome by Conexion San Jose Chapter Director of Talent Pipeline Jessica Ruvalcaba (Americas Channel Marketing Manager at Cisco).

She then introduced Jose Lazares Jr., Sr. Director of Business Development Application Integration Solutions Group at Cisco. Mr. Lazares delivered an open, honest and passionate keynote where he talked about his non-traditional route to corporate success in the tech arena. His authentic messages of determination and perseverance truly kept the audience of high school juniors and seniors engaged. It was impressive to hear his narrative of how he consistently overcame obstacles through his journey and it was also refreshing to see how well the students responded to his candid candor. Silicon Valley Latino was able to conduct a brief interview with Jose at the conclusion of his remarks, we will be bring one that to our audiences soon. After the keynote, the students were broken-up into a couple of different groups where they either participated in a mock interview or career group discussion. Conexion and Silicon Valley Latino sent out invitations to several groups in an effort to engage them to participate in this special event.

We were delighted to see that many Silicon Valley Latino “Cultura Ambassadors” conduct the mock interviews and career group discussions. This empowerment event certainly resonates with Silicon Valley Latino’s own mission and that is why we decided to roll up our sleeves and assist Conexion and the LCPA in the production of this worthy cause. We would also like to thank many of the collaborators who made this special day possible starting with the planning committee and Cisco’ Conexion, Jessica Ruvalcaba ( Conexion San Jose Chapter co-lead), Esmeralda Barriga Gonzalez (Conexion San Jose Chapter co-lead), Raul Lomeli (LCPA Director), Saira Canales (LCPA Head Counselor), Jorge Calixto (Cisco) , Jessica Graham (Cisco), Paula Garcia (Cisco) and Alex Ontiveros (Silicon Valley Latino) as well as Keynote Speaker Jose Lazares Jr. and the event video production crew Robert Alvarez and Samantha Franco of the Luis Valdez Leadership Academy (LVLA). Silicon Valley Latino was also proud support as the event's media sponsor.