Speaker emphasizes education

Therapist and consultant Miriam Acevedo-Davis addressed about 20 women Thursday night at the Mathers Museum, touting the importance of education in overcoming cultural boundaries.\nAcevedo-Davis emphasized the significance of career choices unencumbered by stereotypes and cultural bias in her talk "Minority Women in the Workforce." It was sponsored by sorority Sigma Lambda Gamma, the Latino Cultural Center and the Mathers Museum.\nA Puerto-Rican born native of New York, Acevedo-Davis received an MA in Education from Harvard and an MA in Marriage and Family Services from Butler University.\n"We really wanted to gear this program toward women, especially freshmen and sophomores, who were unsure of what opportunities are out there," said Sigma Lambda Gamma president senior Jessica Castellanos. "Ms. Acevedo-Davis was the perfect choice to motivate these girls; she's an example of a successful Latino woman."\nAcevedo-Davis spoke candidly, often referring to her Brooklyn, N.Y., upbringing. Raised by parents with relatively low levels of education, she said a zeal for learning was instilled in her by her mother.\n Acevedo-Davis said she was selected to participate in the local Upward Bound program, which encourages minority students to pursue collegiate dreams. She said she realized "there was a world outside my neighborhood. But we didn't talk about career development. There were role models within our communities -- teacher, nurse, postman -- but there were definite limits to what society thought we could become."\nOften in Latino society, Acevedo-Davis said, successful Latinos are obligated to "give back" to their communities. She said those who "made it" were often perceived as "less Latin." She concluded that this exemplifies the limits the culture imposed on its people.\n"A lot of the time, Hispanics are hard on each other," she said. "Who decides if you're 'not Puerto Rican enough' or 'not Latino enough?' Is it a measure of who you are? Of how lucky you are?"\nAcevedo-Davis stressed the importance of mentoring young Latina women.\n"Young women need to know about the bigger things in life," Acevedo-Davis said. "They need to know that it's possible for them to do whatever they want to do, to be whatever they dream of being. There's nothing worse than hating what you do; young girls should be encouraged to do what gives them joy."\nAcevedo-Davis said she trains foster care caseworkers, encouraging them to look beyond ethnicities as monolithic groups and perceive them as cultural groups, separate of race. Citing her own major career change from government consulting to counseling, she said women aren't necessarily "locked in" to one job.\n"It was really interesting to observe the role education played in her life," said Sigma Lambda Gamma associate member and senior Adriana Perez. "Regardless of her parents' educational backgrounds. It really shows cycles don't repeat"