Another great graduation for the Leadership Academy. The 11th cohort was celebrated with a reception at the Jeff Seymour Family Center in El Monte. The new graduates: Rebecca Contreras, Edward Duong, Karen Gutierrez, Liliana Griego, Araceli Hernandez, Angela Miramontes, Jasmine Mowgood, Art Moy, Jeanette Ramirez, Daniel Ramli, Payton Robinson, Maricela Rosales, Brian Velez, Dorothy Wong. This brings us to a total of 107 graduates!
Speakers at the ceremony, including keynote speaker Enrique Robles of Congresswoman Judy Chu’s office, urged grads to continue to work to make sure everyone has equal access to nature, with more transit-to-trails and efforts to educate the public about the value of public lands and the need to protect our national monument from federal threats.
We also heard from Leadership Academy graduate Liliana Griego about how she learned about community challenges and became empowered to make changes and take action. “We’re not going to go down without a fight!”
Bryan Matsumoto, a graduate from the previous cohort who remains involved as a volunteer, offered a great endorsement: “This is a group that is really making stuff happen.”
