Indiana Latino Conference

More than 250 high school and college students are expected to attend the Indiana Latino Leadership Conference next month in Valparaiso, reports Inside INdiana Business. La Casa, the Latino Culture Center at Indiana University in Bloomington and Ivy Tech Community College are co-sponsoring the event, which is designed to cultivate leadership among Latino students.

The 11th annual conference take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 27 February at Ivy Tech's Valparaiso Campus (3100 Ivy Tech Drive, Valparaiso). For more information about the conference go online. The fee for students is $10.

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Open Letter to Bill Benner

In last week's Indianapolis Business Journal, Bill Benner (who's director of communications for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Bureau) admitted, "I'm more interested in soccer all of a sudden." As part of his "conversion", he mentions that "soccer is the world's game" and Indianapolis is among the 18 finalist cities as part of the bid to bring the World Cup to the U.S. in 2018 or 2022.

But then, he goes on to say that Indy is a "mostly homogenous community", and he'd like "a little spice to add to our mostly salt-and-pepper population". Yikes!

OK, Benner: consider this an invitation. Come to the next meeting of the Nationalities Council of Indiana (7 p.m. Monday 8 February in the Max Kade Room of the Athenaeum, 401 East Michigan Street, Indianapolis). All of our meetings always are open to everyone! You don't need to wait for the next International Festival (it's 18-21 November). Just look out over the faces of the NCI membership. Check out the ethnic diversity already present in the Hoosier state's capital city and reflect on your somewhat naive assertion! One would think an officer of the ICVA would know better!

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Indiana Groups Join Italian Trade Mission

Three Indiana economic development organizations have completed a trade mission to Turin, Italy, reports Inside INdiana Business. The Economic Development Corporation of Greensburg/Decatur County, Grant County Economic Growth Council and Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership took part in visits to Fiat and several other Italian automotive suppliers. The trip was sponsored by the Center for Automotive Research's Automotive Communities Program.

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Global Business Summit

Indiana Minority Supplier Development Office is sponsoring a global business Summit at the Indiana Business Opportunity Fair to be held 14-15 April in downtown Indianapolis. Complete registration information for the summit, titled "Unlocking the Global Market: Opening New Doors Through Supplier Diversity", is available online. For more information contact: Jeff Rode, Vice President of Operations, 317:921-2680.

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State Grant to Train ESL Teachers in Northwest Indiana

A new Indiana University School of Education program that will develop more highly-trained teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) -- ESL Professional Communities for Expertise and Leadership Development -- has received $154,000 in funding from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, reports the I.U. News Bureau. The grant will focus on preparing minority ESL teachers in two high-need Indiana school corporations in East Chicago and South Bend through on-site workshops, graduate courses, summer institutes and a capstone project. Pictured are (left to right) Beth Samuelson, Faridah Pawan and Michelle Greene, who will help develop more highly-trained teachers of English as a Second Language.

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"A Poor Man Shames Us All"

Explore the alternative views of wealth and society that are exhibited in the lives of tribal cultures as seen in the film, "A Poor Man Shames Us All". Viewers journey from a New York ad agency to the jungles of Indonesia and the plains of Kenya to see how Western views of wealth and economic needs have created a society of strangers in the midst of material riches, while tribal cultures such as the Weyewa of Indonesia and the Gabra of Kenya create economies of dependency on others and measure wealth through people, not possessions. The showing will be at 6 p.m. Thursday (28 January) in the Lilly Auditorium of University Library at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, 755 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis.

After the screening, Ian McIntosh of the IUPUI Office of International Affairs will lead a discussion of this film by David Mabury-Lewis. The event, part of Partnership Africa at IUPUI is co-sponsored by the IUPUI Common Theme Project.

Partnership Africa is a year-long series of lectures, films, performances, exhibits, and video conferences focused on a part of the world with which IUPUI has strong connections, done in collaboration with colleagues, students, and public figures from that country or region.

UPDATE: This screening has been postponed; no date has been announced.

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Dow AgroSciences Receives Mexican Import Approval

Mexico has given Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences LLC import regulatory approval for corn grain produced from the seed company's technology SmartStax, reports Inside INdiana Business. The status means SmartStax can be produced and planted in the United States and Canada and grain produced from SmartStax corn can now be imported by Mexico, Japan, Taiwan and other countries.

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Haiti Earthquake Relief Efforts at Purdue University

Purdue University student organizations have arranged a host of programs as part of an ongoing campus effort to raise money for Haiti, reports the Purdue News Bureau.

Delta Sigma Pi, a business professional fraternity, is having a fashion show from 7-8:30 p.m. Monday (25 January) at Fowler Hall on the Purdue campus in West Lafayette. Proceeds from the event will go to the Purdue Haiti Relief Fund.

Numerous student groups also will set up tables around campus in the coming weeks to collect donations. Engineering World Health: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 28 January inside Stewart Center; Multicultural Mujeres: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 26 and 27 January outside the Class of 1950 Lecture Hall and during the same time period on 2 and 3 February on the Purdue Memorial Mall; Purdue Organization for Labor Equality: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day through 2 March at the Bell Tower and Hello Walk.

Student organizations will continue to raise money for Haiti for the next three to five weeks.

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