Sociedad Latina Celebrates Graduations By Christy Pardew, Special to the Mission Hill Gazette During this graduation season, Sociedad Latina is celebrating the success of nine remarkable Youth Leaders who will graduate from high school next month. Seven of those youth will go on to college this fall, many attending area schools. “My family is extremely excited,” said Julissa Guzman, a Youth Leader at Sociedad Latina. “I’m the first person in my family to go to college. My little sister is 13 and is talking about college all the time now.” Guzman will graduate next month from Brighton High School. She plans to study nursing at Salem State College. Guzman, along with other Youth Leaders, took part in Sociedad Latina’s Mission Possible College Access Program, which pairs youth with college mentors to guide them through the application and scholarship processes. In April, Sean Clarke, a longtime Mission Hill resident and one of the owners of Diablo Glass and Metal, ran the Boston Marathon to support the Mission Possible College Access Program. Together with Sociedad Latina Youth Leaders, staff and board members, Clarke raised nearly $4,000 to support Sociedad Latina high school seniors. Sociedad Latina prepared for Clarke’s run with a celebration at the Mission Bar and Grill in early April. Nearly 100 Mission Hill residents and community supporters came out for an evening of great food and raffle prizes and to celebrate the fact that they didn’t have to run the Boston Marathon to support Sociedad Latina. The 2007 graduates – Niki Brown, Julissa Guzman, Jhonneri Jimenez, Betzy Pineda, Sergio Roque, Kenneth Sham, Braulio Soto and Estelle Tshitenge – will be attending Salem State College, Assumption College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Fisher College, Northeastern University and Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Several Youth Leaders received scholarships, including the prestigious Posse Foundation scholarship, awarded to Jimenez. Braulio Soto, a Youth Leader in Sociedad Latina’s Technology Peer Institute, will graduate from the Engineering School at Hyde Park in June. “I’ve always wanted to go to college – and since sixth grade I’ve wanted to get my master’s degree,” said Soto, who plans to study Computer Networks and Systems at Wentworth Institute of Technology, where he received their Merit Award Scholarship. “Going to college is an opportunity to get a better career, to support my family and to be stable,” Soto continued. “My mom’s really happy.” Based in Mission Hill, Sociedad Latina has been working with Latino youth and families in the Boston area for 39 years, creating a new generation of Latino leaders by offering programs that nurture the inherent strengths of youth, instill a sense of cultural and personal pride, and offer a place for youth to speak and be heard. “My mom gave me everything, the roof over my head. I want to provide for my own family one day and give back to my mom,” Guzman, 18, continued. “It means the world to me to be going to college.” The writer is on the staff of Sociedad Latina. Photo Caption Mission Hill resident Sean Clarke (left) ran the Boston Marathon to support Sociedad Latina’s programs for high school seniors, including (l-r) Julissa Guzman, Braulio Soto and Kenneth Sham.