Vetor among students to attend national congress

Tori Vetor
Tori Vetor

FAYETTEVILLE -- The Educational Talent Search program at the University of Arkansas will send four students and two staff members to this year's National Student Leadership Congress in Washington, D.C., June 6-11.

The students are Daniela Alvarado from Springdale High School, Alexus Brock from McDonald County High School in Anderson, Mo., Regan Flickinger from Lincoln High School and Tori Vetor from Gentry High School. They are among 150 rising high school juniors and seniors selected from Upward Bound and Educational Talent Search programs, two of the federally-funded college access and success programs known as TRiO that serve almost a million students in the U.S. and its territories.

University of Arkansas Talent Search staff members Whitney Srsen and Xong Lor are two of the 12 selected nationally to serve as mentors during the Leadership Congress.

This year the event will be hosted at Georgetown University. The students will take part in a Mock Congress and visit D.C. monuments, museums and the Library of Congress. Sessions have been scheduled with members of Congress or their staffs, and the students will also meet with Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In addition, TRiO alumni in the Washington area will visit with students to talk about their transition to and experiences in college, as well as share how TRiO programs prepared them for professional jobs on Capitol Hill.

This is the 26th year of the Student Leadership Congress, which is presented by the Council for Opportunity in Education. The focus of the National Student Leadership Congress is to develop service-oriented leaders and to empower students to advocate for educational issues that affect their communities and the nation.

General News on 06/03/2015