The National Hispanic Institute (NHI), a nonprofit organization providing leadership education to top-performing Latino high school students across the United States and throughout the Americas, is partnering with Walmart to provide tuition scholarships for a select number of students from Oklahoma and Texas to attend a 2022 Lorenzo de Zavala (LDZ) Youth Legislative Session program. (Walmart, 2022)

The program will host 200 top academic students in a weeklong leadership experience on the campus of Austin College in Sherman, Texas, on July 10-17, 2022. The $20,000 in scholarship money from Walmart — $10,000 for Oklahoma students and $10,000 for Texas students — will provide tuition support.

The LDZ program, launched in 1983, is designed to inspire civic engagement and develop public policy skills. The eight-day immersive program, hosted in coordination with universities, uses a format in which participants declare candidacies and run for offices in executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, and work to propose and enact legislation while developing personal and community identity through a series of exercises that culminate in the three-day legislative session.

Through NHI’s signature community equity building approach, students form communities, develop constituencies, and craft strategies to leverage strengths and capacities. 

“The LDZ experience prompts a personal transformation whereby students feel competent, in control of their life direction, valued in the eyes of others and engaged in adding equity and worth to their community. It nurtures young minds to engage in proactive solutions as a lifelong process.”  – Gloria de Leon, NHI co-founder and architect of the LDZ experience.

“Walmart is excited to sponsor this important program and the work that NHI is going to develop future Latino leaders. As an alum, I can tell you first hand that the LDZ program has an established track record of engaging high school students and inspiring them toward greater civic engagement, and we want to enable students to experience this transformative program through this scholarship fund.” – Ivan Jaime, Director of State and Local Government Relations for Walmart in Oklahoma and Texas.

Current Oklahoma and Texas college-bound high school sophomores and juniors with an 88/100 or 3.2/4.0 grade point average are encouraged to apply. Scholarships will support a portion of the LDZ program’s tuition cost — $995 for the full week, including meals, housing, and tuition. A special committee of NHI alumni and community members in Oklahoma is working on additional fundraising if students need assistance with the balance and transportation arrangements. 

Students are encouraged to promptly submit their online application to the National Hispanic Institute for the Texas LDZ. Select “Walmart Scholarship Candidate” if you are from Oklahoma or Texas to be considered for the award. Students must apply with a $25 application fee for consideration.

Students who cannot attend this program due to conflicts in dates may apply to alternate LDZ sites as well, and depending on funding, may be considered for this award. The first round of admissions will be accepted beginning February 4, 2022, and conclude once the program has reached capacity in mid-March.

The National Hispanic Institute was founded in 1979 to establish an institutional presence in Latino community life, with an organized strategy to prepare the next generation of leaders. NHI researches emergent leadership in youth, and guides them to envision their value beyond the attainment of college degrees and careers into the realm of community leadership.