Acclaimed Educational Model ‘Feria Para Aprender’™ Headed to Miami Dade College Kendall Campus Oct. 8!
‘The Learning Fair’ to navigate thousands of parents along an educational pathway with 100 Spanish language exhibits starting from early childhood to college and career
Miami, September 7, 2011 - The nationally-acclaimed Spanish language education program for increased parental involvement and college readiness in Latino communities, Feria Para Aprender––or The Learning Fair, is headed to Miami-Dade County. The First Annual Miami-Dade Es El Momento: Feria Para Aprender is scheduled for Saturday, October 8, from 12-5 p.m. at Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Kendall Campus.
The free event is open to the public and is jointly presented by CommuniCard (Feria founder), Univision 23 Miami and Univision Radio stations -- WQBA 1140 AM, Radio Mambi 710 AM, Amor 107.5 FM, Mix 98.3 FM -- and Miami Dade College. Created five years ago, the Feria Para Aprender is the nation’s largest Spanish language educational event which has expanded each year to high-need regions, such as Los Angeles and Dallas/Fort Worth and now Miami. The Feria is also part of Univision’s multi-platform national education initiative, Es el momento.
Feria Para Aprender is defined as a “community mobilization” with a three-tiered methodology focused year-round on training and aligning a region’s educational infrastructure, navigating a parent less familiar with the U.S. education system, and promoting economic development in a region. The mobilization program culminates each year with a Feria where Spanish language dominant parents, the majority of whom are not college educated, are shown how to navigate the educational pipeline with a systematic layout that takes parents and their children from infant and pre-kindergarten stages to primary and secondary education and then to higher education and careers.
“Miami Dade College is proud to partner with the Feria Para Aprender and to once again join forces with Univision which has championed education nationally. We share the mission to empower parents around student success and we are collectively working together to align providers and resources on this day who will be able to successfully put families on an enlightened pathway to a better life through education,” said Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, MDC’s President.
Atthe Feria, more than 200 academic experts and professional mentors who have participated in the Feria’s Community Capacity Training will help guide parents through numerous hands-on activities, including:
- An educational pathway from pre-K to college and career
- Career/workforce zones linked to the region’s critical workforce development areas, including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), Health Care, Aviation, Logistics, Tourism, and others
- Visual career/workforce demonstrations such as robotics and computer technology
- Reading gardens and theatrical story-telling with 15,000 books given away
- Photo visualization area where parents get a photo of their students in a career costume or graduation cap and gown
- Mock bilingual education and dual language classroom
- Financial aid and financial literacy zones
“To educate the fastest-growing, yet lowest performing, student population is one of our nation’s greatest challenges but also one of its greatest opportunities,” said CesarConde, President of Univision Networks of Univision Communications Inc. “Univision has successfully partnered with the Feria Para Aprender training and mobilization program over several years to commission scalable education strategies that target the parents of first generation college students and equip them with the tools to guide their families to college completion, top careers, and a life out of poverty.”
“The Es el momento Feria Para Aprender will help South Florida families navigate the education system from early childhood through the college years in a very strategic and effective manner, offering a myriad of invaluable resources and information,” added Luis Fernandez-Rocha,Senior Vice President, Regional Director/southeast, Univision Local Media. “We are very excited to work with our partners and present our community an event that will empower them to help their children succeed in school.”
Many leading non-profits, schools, institutions and agencies have already signed up to participate in the First Annual Miami-Dade Es El Momento: Feria Para Aprender, including Miami-Dade County Public Schools, The Children’s Trust, The Children’s Movement of Florida, Early Learning Coalition, Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, Miami-Dade County Mayor’s Office, Miami-Dade County Health Department, City of Homestead, HCREO, YMCA of Greater Miami, United Way of Miami Dade, and numerous other colleges, nonprofits, and providers.
Colleges, organizations, or volunteers that want to participate in the Feria need to sign up at www.FeriaParaAprender.com/Miami by filling out the appropriate exhibitor or volunteer form. There is no exhibitor cost for non-profit or school district programs.
“Everyone benefits when we have a targeted approach to help educational organizations more effectively address the demographic shifts in a region. We’re very excited to be working with such an accomplished group of partners and organizations,” said Sylvia Acevedo, CEO and founder of CommuniCard. “We’ve seen firsthand the results of the Feria’s community capacity building in fast-growing English language learning communities and in high drop-out markets. What the Feria brings is a proven methodology for parental involvement and an approach that aligns our educational efforts, strengthens our outreach strategies, and expands our vision to create globally competitive advantages from a region’s bilingually educated workforce.”
Dr. Padron, Mr. Conde and Ms. Acevedo have participated together in many national education projects and are highly respected as champions for the underserved and education.
About Feria Para Aprender
Feria Para Aprender debuted five years ago as the vision of education and workforce strategist Sylvia Acevedo, the CEO of CommuniCard, a firm that works with institutions to strategize with the demographic shifts. The program is a nationally recognized education model on parental involvement and community mobilization. The Feria started in Austin, Texas (a metropolitan area with one of the nation’s largest growth of English Language Learners) and is now being produced nationwide. In 2010, 27,000 attended the Los Angeles Feria and 47,000 free books were given away. To read research reports and to watch video of prior Ferias, visit www.FeriaParaAprender.com.
About Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College is the nation’s largest institution of higher education with an enrollment of more than 174,000 students. It is also the nation’s top producer of Associate in Arts and Science degrees. The college’s eight campuses and outreach centers offer more than 300 distinct degree programs including several baccalaureate degrees in education, public safety, supervision and management, nursing, physician assistant studies, film, engineering and others. In fact, its academic and workforce training programs have served as national models of excellence. MDC is also renowned for its rich cultural programming. It is home of the Miami Book Fair International, Miami International Film Festival, the Cultura del Lobo performing arts series, the National Historic Landmark Miami Freedom Tower, a major sculpture park and large art gallery and theater systems. MDC has served nearly 2,000,000 students since it opened its doors in 1960.
MDC Univision Feria Para Aprender
- WHEN:
Saturday, Oct. 8, 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
- WHERE: Miami Dade College Kendall Campus – Gymnasium, Building 7000
11011 SW 104 ST
CommuniCard media Contact: Oné Musel-Gilley, 512-576-0219, CommuniCard@gmail.com
Univision media contact: Angela Ramos, 305-471-3907, ARamos@Univision.net
Media-only contacts:
Juan Mendieta, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu, MDC communications director
Tere Estorino, 305-237-3949, testorin@mdc.edu, MDC media relations director
Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu, media specialist
Tarnell Carroll, 305-237-3359, tcarroll@mdc.edu, media specialist