State and local Latino leaders yesterday convened a special session with student graduates of a prestigious college program that grooms future policymakers.
About 200 people attended the Model New York State Senate Session Project reunion held at Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work in Harlem.
“Students actually get a sense of what it’s like to make policy,” said Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx).
“To many of these kids who have never even visited Albany, they get to go to the floor of the Senate and stand up and debate an issue. We get them to think about what a representative is and the interests of their constituency,” he said.
Program alumnus Alexandra Ruiz said the project was instrumental in helping her to found Immigration Advocacy Matters, a Queens-based nonprofit. “It really changed my view of government.”