Hundreds of Latino students from local high schools attended sessions to learn about all the options available to them on campus.

The Annual Central Iowa Latino Expo, hosted in the Memorial Union on Thursday, had four sessions with topics ranging from “Engineering with an Accent” to preparing for college and financing education.

Abigail Sarmiento, sophomore at North Des Moines high school, said she came to the expo to find out more about the design program.

“I heard it is pretty big, but I really wanted to see what it was all about,” she said.

The expo was put together by the Sigma Lambda Gamma fraternity and the Office of Admissions’ college-bound program, which assists and encourages minority students to pursue higher education.

Randall Bogard, graduate assistant for the program, said he felt this year’s expo was very successful.

“It got a lot of students here, seeing Iowa State and meeting Latino/Latina people that have succeeded and risen to the top,” said Bogard, graduate student in educational and leadership policies.

Students from Perry, East Des Moines, Roosevelt, Hoover, North Des Moines, Scavo and Lincoln high schools attended the sessions.

Bryan Bonilla, sophomore at North Des Moines High School, said he attended the expo last year when it was held at Grandview College.

He said he got a lot of advice about which classes he should take.

“I wanted to come this year to learn more about Iowa State and see what it has to offer,” he said.

Both Bonilla and Sarmiento attended a session called “Becoming a B.A.D.D. Latino Student,” facilitated by Roy Salcedo.

B.A.D.D. is an acronym for the four key points for being a great student: Be honest, always do your best, don’t take it personally and don’t make assumptions.

Salcedo, residence hall coordinator for lower Friley, centered his discussion around the book, “The Four Agreements,” by Don Miguel Ruiz.

He said he liked to reference this because some of the students in the session are probably challenging their agreements.

Salcedo started by asking the students who chose their name, their morals and their religion.

He told the students these were called agreements because the majority of people continue to use their established name their whole life, along with the morals and religion with which they were raised.

“The mind is a powerful thing,” Salcedo said. “If we start believing something is true, it generally comes true.”

Salcedo said avoiding assumptions is one of the most important things a student can do.

“Einstein learned all he did because he kept asking questions,” he said.

Carla Espinoza, associate vice president for human resource services, spoke to students about the importance of applying to schools early and feeling comfortable with the application process.

“I wanted to emphasize to these students, no matter what their background, their lives have prepared them to survive,” Espinoza said.

The Latino population is the fastest-growing ethnic population .

Espinoza also stressed the importance of turning in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. She said most students don’t understand the importance of the application or how it can positively affect how much financial aid a student receives.

The students also had a chance to go to the Black Engineering Building to participate in a game that teaches industrial engineering by having the students manage a chocolate factory. The students had to control shipping, making and buying supplies for chocolate production.

Devna Popejoy-Sheriff, academic adviser for industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, said she hoped the students she worked with would find it fun and cause them to think about continuing their scientific education.

Salcedo reminded the students at the end of his session not to get discouraged or give up when challenged.

“Don’t let any type of barrier get in your way,” he said. “The thing you gave up on yesterday might not be there tomorrow.”