Latin American Student Association

== Washington-Lee High School's
Latin American Student Association (LASA) ==

Washington-Lee High School’s Latin American Student Association is an after school organization located in Arlington, Virginia. Today the club is commonly known as LASA.

The Latin American Student Association was establish in 1989. The club members would meet once a week and the meetings were conducted strictly in Spanish. This served to incorporate and implement the Latin American culture and language in the school setting. The primary goal of LASA was to promote and support the growing Hispanic minority population as well as non-Hispanic minority students at Washington-Lee High school.

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Since then the meetings are no longer conducted in the Spanish language because of the growing non-Hispanic student participation and membership. Today the organization implements success in all areas to produce well rounded successful students, productive citizens, and future leaders for the community. The Clubs theme is “excellence in leadership, scholarship, citizenship and friendship.

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The organization promotes leadership through the various leadership positions members can run for such as club officers and committee chairmen.

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To promote scholarship the members are encouraged to participate in the GOALS tutoring program which branches off from LASA. The GOALS tutoring program is primarily for international students and students who wish to polish their English language skills that are apart of the HILT or ESOL program. Volunteers are largely LASA members and they help and encourage English language skills through reading books and assistance with homework.LASA offers all students information about scholarships and is involved with several college trips that allow students to visit colleges in the state of Virginia. In the past LASA has participated in University conferences, overnight stays, and tours in prestigious universities such as; the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Georgetown University, Marymount University, James Madison, & George Mason University.

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To promote citizenship the organization holds various fundraisers to raise money for the LASA scholarship fund. Fundraisers vary from car washes, bake sales, candy sales & the annual Holiday Bazaar. At the end of year the LASA scholarship is reworded to an outstanding candidate who has any percentage of Hispanic/Latino decent. Special guest speakers that hold positions in the government, the school board or sponsors from other organizations in the community come and inform the members about the way the government functions as well as informing the students of other organizations, programs or scholarships that are available to them such as Arlington Teen network committee, Buckingham Youth brigade, and other various influential guest speakers such as J. Walter Tejada, Vice-chairman, Arlington Count Board. LASA also participates in the annual Arlington Neighborhood day parade to promote the organization as well as to create awareness of the Hispanic community.

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To promote friendship and Leadership among the three major high schools in Arlington County another organization that branches from the LASA organization is Congreso Estundentil (CELA). This organization combines students from Washington-lee, Wakefield, and Yorktown High School to come together and work on promoting success for the raising Hispanic high school students. The primary task that CELA has collaborated on helping to organizing the George Mason Latino Youth Conference held at the GMU campus in Arlington Va. The George Mason Latino Youth conference consists of middle and high school students alike, to hear inspirational and influential speakers who have impacted the Hispanic community. The Master Coordinators who introduce these guest speakers are all CELA members. The second conference CELA organizes is to increase Minority parents’ involvement in their son and daughters schools by holding a Minority parents conference. The Latin American Student Association also tries to encourage a healthy social life by sponsoring a Valentines day dance, LASA Christmas Party, End of the year party, ice-cream social, Movie day, Dinner outings, Amusement Park trips, Overnight College stays and a Mother’s day dinner outing with parents and students.

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Importance & Significance:
The Latin American Student Association holds an important role in the Hispanic community. It allows for minority students to be involved with in the community and the school. It prepares students to take on roles that organize functions, promote success for Latinos and other minorities. LASA empowers, supports, and drives students to strive to be active citizens of the community, Leaders, and to simply become a better person.

The sponsor is currently Mr. Bob Garcia who is also a mentor to the members. All students are welcome and the membership fee for the school year is $5.00

here is a link that directs you to Washington-Lee High School Clubs web page-
http://www.washlee.arlington.k12.va.us/activities_athletics/descriptions.jsp

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