LULAC and LICI to Host the First Latino Tech Summit in Silicon Valley

December 1, 2016

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - This week, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the nation’s largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization, in partnership with the Latino Institute for Corporate Inclusion (LICI), is hosting the first Latino Tech Summit in Silicon Valley.

As part of its mission, LULAC helps ensure that the Latino community has access to a range of resources and information that helps enrich their lives and advance professional opportunities. The goal of the tech summit is to bring together technology based corporations interested in diversifying its workforce and Latino talent.

“The tech industry has long acknowledged that it needs to do more to recruit and hire qualified minority candidates. In fact, this industry has relied heavily on a limited number of universities such as, Stanford and M.I.T., which has produced a steady stream of mostly white candidates,” said LULAC National Executive Director Brent Wilkes. "Per diversity reports from Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, 56 percent of employees in tech jobs are white, 37 percent Asian, 3 percent Hispanic and 1 percent black. We hope the tech summit will ultimately serve to develop new pipelines for identifying a diverse talent base. Currently, we know that Latinos are graduating with relevant degrees such as computer science and engineering. In fact, according to data from the 2014 American Community Survey, more than 1.3 million Latinos have recently graduated with science and engineering bachelor’s or advanced degrees. These individuals deserve serious consideration for positions with U.S. tech companies.”

The technology summit is designed to share effective strategies to recruit, retain and develop Latino talent. As part of that effort, the Latino Tech Summit will provide workshops and forums so that young qualified people will be able to hear from the country’s leading tech executives regarding information and communication technology, as well as career opportunities in design and technology-related start-ups.

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The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 1000 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.lulac.org.