Educator Awarded National Honor
An Oxnard man who founded an organization aimed at bolstering the leadership skills of high school and college students has been named Educator of the Year by a Washington-based foundation.
Gilbert G. Cuevas, president of the Oxnard-based Future Leaders of America, was given the award last week in Washington by Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, a New York lawmaker who chairs the House International Relations Committee.
The award, presented by the Washington Workshops Foundation, honors Cuevas for his efforts to provide leadership training to more than 8,000 youngsters in the United States and Latin America.
“I didn’t expect this, and I was very flattered,” said Cuevas, a Santa Paula native who formed the leadership organization in 1982. “This is a very great honor.”
The Washington Workshops Foundation is a nonprofit group offering civic education seminars to secondary school students from the United States and overseas.
In presenting the award to Cuevas, Gilman praised his “outstanding service to the youth of our nation.”
“Future Leaders of America is a unique undertaking to encourage young Latinos to become leaders in their community, to ensure that our Latino citizens have a voice and a say in the decisions that affect them,” Gilman said.
For the past five years, Cuevas has been hosting an annual conference in Washington where students from the United States and Mexico learn about the democratic process and discuss issues confronting both countries.
“From that common basis of understanding we jump further and discuss what changes need to be made to improve hemispheric relations,” Cuevas said.
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