Youth Awards | 2017

In 2017  the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s (HHF) Youth Awards reached 10,000 students and professionals in 10 cities with the partnership and support of our sponsors including BBVA Compass, Colgate-Palmolive, CVS Health, Google, NBC Universal | Telemundo, Pearson and Southwest Airlines. 

“We were thrilled to honor yet another class of outstanding young Latino leaders who will certainly make an impact on our communities and workforce as they move forward in their careers,” said Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO, HHF. “We applaud the vision of our sponsors as they share our focus in supporting what we consider priority fields for America. We believe these are the young leaders of today, not tomorrow and frankly, we can’t afford to wait. I will say that after 19 years of Youth Awards, there is no shortage of top, young, Latino talent.”

Hispanic Heritage Youth Awardees are selected from thousands of applicants! The Youth Awards honored Latino high school seniors in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York,  Phoenix, Northern California, Dallas, Houston, Washington, DC., Atlanta and Miami. This year’s categories included (Business & Entrepreneurship) sponsored by BBVA Compass, (Community Service) sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive, (Education) sponsored by Southwest Airlines, (Engineering & Mathematics)  sponsored by HHF, (Healthcare & Science) sponsored by CVS Health, (Media & Entertainment) sponsored by (NBCUniversal | Telemundo) and (Technology) sponsored by Google.

Youth Award recipients received grants for their education or to fund an idea/community project to encourage “actionable leadership” which is HHF’s call to action. Recipients will also be mentored by past Youth Awardees as they prepare to attend college and into their careers through HHF’s award-winning Latinos on Fast Track (LOFT) workforce development program. HHF also recognized a parent with the Hispanic Heritage Pearson Parent Award, sponsored by Pearson, at our 10 regional ceremonies.

Director of Diversity at Rice University, David Medina, State of Board of Education, Member District 8  Barbara Cargill and attendees were serenaded by Mariachi luna Llena in Houston! In Los Angeles, HHF was joined by Radio/TV Personality & CEO of Brazen, RaqC Cordova, Comedian, Ernie G. and singer, Catie Waters. At our Northern California Youth Awards we were joined by Consul General of Mexico, Juan Manuel Calderon. To catch up on everything Youth Awards on social media use #YouthAwards17!

2017 Youth Awards partners included Indie Desk, NASCAR, Voto Latino, Macy’s, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), UPS, Herbalife and Arent Fox. 

Our regional Youth Awards finished off 2017, but our Regional Youth Awards recipients will be narrowed to one National Youth Award recipient for each of the seven categories.  Stay tuned as we announce the National Youth Award recipients who will be celebrated at our National Youth Awards in Washington, DC in the coming year!

Learn more about Youth Awards program.