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Past HSI Symposiums
Each year, the Adelante HSI Symposium brings together influential scholars, advocates, artists, and community leaders whose work deepens our understanding of what it means to serve Latinx/e students and build a more equitable Cal Poly. Explore the keynote speakers who have shared their perspectives, experiences, and vision with our campus community.
2026 HSI Symposium Keynote Speaker
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MIGUEL CARDONA12th United states secretary of education Miguel A. Cardona is an American leader and educator. He served as the 12th United States Secretary of Education, a position he was nominated for by President Joe Biden. Throughout his close to three-decade career in education, Secretary Cardona has focused on improving educational access and equity, from his classroom of students as a fourth grade teacher to the nation’s 65 million students as Secretary of Education. The four pillars of his educational agenda included Academic Recovery and Excellence, Improving Conditions for Educators and Mental Health, Global Competitiveness, and College Affordability and Accessibility. |
About the Keynote
Cardona led the successful reopening of America’s schools after a pandemic, oversaw the efficient distribution of $190 billion to accelerate academic recovery and mental health support, and led unprecedented federal efforts to transform the country's student loan system, which resulted in greater accountability in higher education and over $185 billion in debt relief to 5 million Americans. As the 12th U.S. Secretary of Education, he also focused on safely reopening and reimagining schools, overhauling higher education accountability, improving access and affordability to higher education, and providing upward economic mobility to more students across the country.
Under Secretary Cardona’s leadership, the United States saw the greatest one-year growth in reading achievement for lower-performing students since 2009. It also increased from zero to 48 states initiating to pay student teachers while they learn through apprenticeships, an additional 16,000 school counselors and mental health experts, and over 1 million public servants earning debt relief.
Federal Student Aid (FSA) awarded Federal College Grants to 10% more students in 2024 compared to the previous year due to a transformational overhaul of FSA, the first in over 40 years. More students in America have affordable access to college and career pathways due to the efforts under Secretary Cardona’s leadership.
Prior to becoming U.S. Secretary of Education, Secretary Cardona served as the Commissioner of Education in Connecticut, District Leader in Connecticut, University Instructor, National Award-winning School Principal, and classroom teacher. Miguel dedicated close to three decades serving the community in these roles, which laid the foundation for his national leadership. Secretary Cardona's approach to leadership at the local, state, federal, and international levels has been grounded in intentional collaboration and lifted by a bold vision for improvement from pre-kindergarten through college to adult learning. His work has sought collaboration from local leaders, governors, philanthropists, entertainers and artists, industry executives, and international leaders.
A first-generation college student who celebrates bilingualism and biculturalism as a superpower, Secretary Cardona’s story embodies the American dream and the power of public education. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University, followed by his master’s, professional and executive certifications, and Ed.D. from the University of Connecticut. He has also been awarded two honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Southern Connecticut State University and Thaddeus Stevens College in Pennsylvania. Through an acknowledgment of how arts and culture have shaped his accession to the highest education position in the country, Secretary Cardona prides himself in staying true to his passion and values, from the Barrio to the Briefing Room. His greatest accomplishment, however, remains the family he built with his wife, Marissa, an educator, and their two college-aged children.
2025 HSI Symposium Keynote Presentation
The Sounds of Resistance: From Storytelling to Movement Building
Stories have always been at the heart of resistance. They preserve memory, carry truth across generations, and spark the imagination needed to build a different future. This keynote explores how storytelling can move beyond the personal to fuel collective action and transformational change. Through words of empowerment, cultural rhythms, and reclaimed narratives, we will reflect on how stories carve space for justice, belonging, and possibility.
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KEYNOTE SPEAKER: HECTOR FLORESVOCALS, JARANA TERCERA, ZAPATEADO Hector is an LA based artist using song, film and storytelling to elevate, shift and shine light on the narrative of BIPOC communities over the last 10 years as a Musician and Cultural Worker. He is also an Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Las Cafeteras. The eldest of 6 children, Hector was raised in East Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley with parents born of Indigenous and Mexican roots. He graduated from Cal State Long Beach and before transitioning to a career as an artist, he was an Organizer for over 10 years in South and East LA. |
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LAS CAFETERAS“UNIQUELY ANGELENO MISHMASH OF PUNK, HIP-HOP, BEAT MUSIC, CUMBIA & ROCK.”—LA TIMES Born and raised east of the Los Angeles River, Las Cafeteras are modern-day troubadours remixing roots music with a vibrant fusion of Afro-Mexican rhythms, electronic beats, and powerful rhymes. Blending son jarocho, rock, hip hop, Americana, and soul, Las Cafeteras honor tradition with instruments like the jarana, requinto, quijada, and tarima, while singing in five languages: English, Spanish, Spanglish, Love, and Justice. With joy, rhythm, and imagination, they carry forward the stories of their community—building “a world where many worlds fit. Their electrifying live performances have taken them from the Hollywood Bowl to Bonnaroo, WOMAD New Zealand to the Montreal Jazz Festival, and to stages alongside icons such as Café Tacuba, Natalia LaFourcade, Lila Downs, the Gypsy Kings, Juanes, Common, Ozomatli, Los Lobos, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. |
2024 HSI Symposium Keynote Speaker
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JAVIER ZAMORAHOME, IDENTITY, AND THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE Memoirist, poet, and speaker Javier Zamora believes that immigrants must keep ownership of their own stories. In his award-winning memoir, Solito, he explores his own: a harrowing journey to the U.S. as an unaccompanied nine-year-old that gives a unique and unforgettable glimpse into the realities of child migration. In his talks, he shares the story of his trek to reunite with his family, and how therapy and writing were able to help him heal from the trauma that has haunted him ever since. |
2023 HSI Symposium Keynote Speaker
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DOLORES HUERTALABOR ICON AND CO-FOUNDER OF UNITED FARM WORKERS Dolores Huerta is the President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Her lifelong journey has been working as a community organizer and social justice activist for over 50 years. She continues working to develop community leaders to advocate for the working poor, immigrants, women and youth through her work with the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Huerta is a two time United States Presidential Award Recipient; she received the Medal of Freedom Award from President Obama in 2012, the highest civilian award in the United States, and the Eleanor D. Roosevelt Human Rights Award from President Clinton in 1998. |
About the Keynote
Huerta has played a major role in the American civil rights movement. Most notably she co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) with Cesar Chavez advocating for farm workers in this country. She is a founding board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation; she also serves on the board of Ms. Magazine. Numerous awards include the Ohtli award from the Mexican Government, the James Smithson Award from the Smithsonian Institution, the Icons of the American Civil Rights Movement Award, bestowed to her in 2011 by the National Civil Rights Museum. She also was named Ms. Magazine’s one of the three most important women of 1997, the Ladies Home Journal’s 100 most important woman of the 20th Century, she is a recipient of the Puffin Foundation award for Creative Citizenship as a Labor Leader in 1984, the Kern County woman of the year by the California State legislature, among many other accolades. She is a former UC Regent and has earned nine honorary doctorates from universities throughout the United States. Her most recent recognitions include her induction to the U. S. Department of Labor Hall of Honor. Huerta was also the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
¡Adelante!, which translates to "Forward!" in Spanish, is about honoring the past, present, and future momentum of this effort and the collective drive to become an HSI that holistically serves the Latinx/e community.
