Five ISU students will travel to Chicago this weekend to take part in the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute.

The conference runs Thursday through Sunday, though the ISU students will not leave until Friday.

Participants will listen to several speakers including the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, president of Rainbow and PUSH Coalition, and Barack Obama, a democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois.

In addition to listening to speakers, attendees will take part in various workshops dealing with Latino issues, including leadership, health, careers and education.

The workshops generally include roundtable discussions and allow time for participants to share their experiences and thoughts, said Jason Smolka, senior in electrical engineering.

Smolka organized this year’s trip. He has attended two leadership institute conferences and said it was a great opportunity to see thousands of successful college students. “It’s kind of an uplifting experience,” he said.

David Romero, senior in biology; Michael Westendorf, senior in management information systems; Brenda Vargas, junior in animal ecology; Oyuki Rocha, senior in transportation and logistics; and Anthony Manriquez, freshman in computer engineering, will represent Iowa State. The students come from three organizations: the Latino Heritage Month Committee, the Organization of Latino Students and the Mexican-American Young Achievers Society.

Those attending are leaders in their organizations along with at least one freshman, said Yanira Pacheco-Ortiz, adviser to the Latino Heritage Month Committee.

“Upperclassmen are training freshmen to make sure they become leaders of the organizations,” Pacheco-Ortiz said.

Several issues usually come up every year, Smolka said. Civil responsibility is usually a pertinent topic because a founder of the U.s. Hispanic Leadership Institute is also a founder of Latino Vote USA, he said.

“One of the main issues they always bring up is voting,” Smolka said. Participants must be registered voters in order to attend. With an election approaching, being an informed and active voter should be a big issue, Smolka said.

Another common issue is how to approach university administrations and move them toward acknowledging Latino issues on campus. The group focuses on conquering the fear of not being heard and to get rid of the apathy that might exist, Smolka said.

Vargas said she is looking forward to the conference.

“I’ve heard it’s really fun,” she said. “Everybody that has been there says it’s a great conference.”

Leadership and health issues within the Latino community are major interests, she said.

The workshop Vargas said she is most excited about is “Sister Power: Women of Color Leaders, Looking to Our Cultural Legacy to Maximize Our Leadership.”

“It really attracted me because I think that we as Latinas should take on more leadership,” she said.

After the conference, she will bring what she learns back to Iowa State to share with other students. The ISU students are required to share what they have learned in a workshop sometime during the year. “We will probably have them present some type of workshop at [the Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity],” Smolka said.