Dear Friends,

Chicano Organizing and Research in Education (CORE) and its Immigrant Youth Empowerment Conference (IYEC) Planning Committee invites you to submit a workshop proposal for our fourth annual Immigrant Youth Empowerment Conference on Friday, October 24, 2025 from 9:00am to 1:30pm at Vassar College.

The theme of the 4th Annual Immigrant Youth Conference (IYEC) at Vassar College is “Strength Through Organizing.” This theme centers organizing as a tool for empowerment and achieving our goals. As the immigrant community faces increased persecution, scapegoating, and removal, we affirm organizing to be one powerful way to resist efforts that divide us, and to help us build a collective sense of strength. Organizing takes many forms — for instance, community, student, and political organizing — each with its own method, but all working towards an objective. Organizing is tactical and strategic, disciplined and structured, and requires working hard with a variety of folks with different personalities and points of views. This conference explores strength through organizing by centering the following three questions: What is “organizing”? What lessons are learned from organizing, whether won or lost? And how does organizing create a sense of empowerment despite opposing forces? 

We are seeking workshops that address our conference theme for an audience of high school students. Workshops are all 45 minutes each and there will be one session in the mid-morning (10:15am – 11:00am).

If you are interested in providing a workshop, please submit your proposal below no later than Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 11:59pm. Note that submission of a proposal does not guarantee approval. All proposals are subject to review and approval by the IYEC Planning Committee. Workshops selections are expected to be announced on or around Wednesday, October 8, 2025.