FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Honorable Gaddi Vasquez, Director of the Peace Corps, will keynote the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) National Internship Program’s summer farewell reception.  The event on Wednesday, August 9th, in Washington, D.C., will mark the completion of this summer’s internships for Hispanic college students at federal agencies.

More than 300 students, supervisors, federal representatives, congressional staffers and other Hispanic advocacy organizations will be in the audience.  Mr. Vasquez, the first Hispanic American to serve as director of the Peace Corps, is the third-longest serving Director in the Peace Corps’ 45 year history.  He was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on January 23, 2002.

The summer farewell reception will help close another successful summer program.  This summer more than 400 top college students, representing 32 states participated in paid government and corporate internships this summer.  Since its inception in 1992, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities National Internship Program, or HNIP, has provided paid internships to over 6,000 college students during spring, summer and fall sessions at federal agencies and private corporations in Washington, D.C., and throughout the country

A program hailed each year as an enviable recruitment tool by participating employers, HNIP was established to reverse the under-representation of Hispanics in the public and private sector workforce. Each year, dozens of interns say yes to full-time job offers after completing 10- and 15-week assignments matching their career interests.

“This remarkable program opens doors to rewarding careers for our students each year, and provides opportunities for employers to build a workforce that better reflects the rapidly changing demographics of our country,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores.

This summer’s interns hail from 32 states and maintain an average GPA of 3.38.

Twenty-one summer interns are participating in the HNIP Co-op Program, which allows students to accrue enough on-the-job hours to make them eventually eligible for noncompetitive placement in certain federal positions.

“Hispanics now make up the largest ethnic population in this country, but they remain the only under-represented population group in the federal labor force. The co-op program is directly responding to long-standing government mandates to recruit and hire more Hispanics to better reflect the diversity of the civilian workforce,” stated William Gil, Assistant Vice President of Collegiate Programs and Federal Relations for HACU.

For more information, contact HNIP Director Alexandria Rosales at (202) 467-0893.  Or visit http://www.hnip.net/. For more information about HACU, visit http://www.hacu.net/.

< Back