When it began in 2011, there were only 30 students, a few speakers and an idea. Year after year, the program has outgrown its venue, budget and ambitions, expecting to host 120 high school students for its upcoming symposium on Jan. 30.

Pasos al Futuro, run by DePaul’s Latino Media and Communication department, targets Latino high school students for a program that promotes news literacy, higher education and provides hands-on workshops in which students develop, produce and edit their own news stories and broadcasts.

Spanish for ‘steps towards the future’, the program includes a day-long winter symposium in which journalism professors and industry professionals host panel discussions and participate in breakout sessions with the high school students.

“This is an event where people learn about the life of a journalist. How did the journalists get there, how did they make it to where they are today. What guidance would they give students if they wanted to get into journalism,” Cristina Benitez, Director of Latino Media and Communication at DePaul, said.

This year’s symposium will include the managing editor of Hoy, Fernando Diaz, as well as the magazine’s multimedia producer, Roger Morales. On-air personality Aileen Oca’Ûαa and News Director Teri Arvesu of Univision Chicago will be there, in addition to Alejandro Escalona, web editor for Telemundo who teaches a course titled ‘Reporting Latino Communities’ at DePaul. Several journalism professors from the university will also be there to weigh in on the panel discussions and help lead the day’s activities.

Sophomore Jessenia Martinez, who participated in the Pasos al Futuro program in high school twice, is now studying journalism at DePaul. “I really enjoyed it, and the lots of hands-on experience. It’s kind of how I got started and where I’m at now. The program opened my eyes to what I could do in the real world afterwards,” Martinez said.

At the end of the event, participants are invited to attend the Pasos al Futuro summer workshop, where they actually get a chance to brainstorm, produce their own news broadcasts and write stories.

“The big kahuna is in the summer, and that’s the summer journalism workshop. This is where students are assigned stories, then they do the research, they write the questions, they go to the site, they interview people – it is filmed. We use DePaul journalism students to help with this part of the program,” Benitez said.

Pasos al Futuro partners up with Global Initiatives, which utilizes local connections in the community to reach out to Hispanic high school students to participate.

“We recruit for people that love to write, and also journalism students. It’s really targeting these students that don’t really have an opportunity to think about journalism but care a lot about their communities, and it’s giving them an opportunity to be a voice for their communities,” Benitez said.

Last year, Pasos al Futuro received the largest grant ever in the college of communication’s history, a total of $120,000 from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. Since then, the program has expanded its efforts, increasing its panel discussions, adding workshops and doubling the length of its summer session from one week to two.

“Other students can benefit from the program because you can refurbish your writing skills and you’re going to write almost like half of your life, so why not go. You gain networking, you gain skills, and you’re able to put it on your resume as well. Every student should do it, even if they are not doing journalism,” Martinez said.

The symposium will take place Jan. 30, 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the DePaul Center, room 8005.