NHI Announces Celebracion 2016 Location: McAllen

The National Hispanic Institute has announced that, for the first time in its history, its 2016 Celebracion event will be held in the Rio Grande Valley. Specifically, it will be at the McAllen Convention Center from Nov. 10-13, with the newly-constructed Embassy Suites across the hotel serving as the host hotel for the event.

Celebracion, launched in 2003, is the annual conference and celebration involving NHI students, alumni, and supporters. The annual event honors difference-making Latinos, through both its Lifetime Achievement Award – most recently given to Panamanian democracy advocate Teresita Yanez de Arias, and Sesame Street actors Emilio Delgado and Sonia Manzano (who portrayed Luis and Maria) — and through a series of awards given to NHI alumni and partners.

Celebracion also features a competition involving more than 500 top high school students from across the nation and throughout the Western Hemisphere, qualified to participate through involvement in NHI’s slate of summer programs hosted by a number of liberal arts colleges and major state universities. This year’s competition will be open to all summer program participants — a break from the previous qualification process — though enrollment will be capped at 550 for the 2016 edition of the competition.

“The Rio Grade Valley has long been one of our major providers of top high school students to NHI youth leadership programs since 1983, and we wish to share this very special moment with those who have believed in our work for such a long time,” said Gloria de Leon, Executive Vice President for NHI, who hails from McAllen. “The RGV gave us our start through its faith in our work.”

Nominations for the 2016 NHI Awards are now open; to submit a nominee to the committee overseeing the awards, fill out the linked Google form.