Sept. 24, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Robert Flores
Agricultural Education and Communication
805-756-2169; rflores@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly Professor Receives National Diversity Award
SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Robert Flores is the national winner in the Community/Business Leader category for the H.O. Sargent Diversity Award program sponsored by the National FFA Organization. Flores is the head of the Agricultural Education and Communication Department at Cal Poly.
Flores was nominated for his leadership promoting professional agricultural careers to minority students, scholarship fundraising, establishing strength training and teambuilding programs among youth leaders, and teacher training to accept and incorporate diversity in student populations.
He was nominated by Jodi Evans and Anna Bates, teachers at San Luis Obispo High School, and their students. Flores first won the state competition in order to advance as a finalist for the national award. The state Award was presented in May.
Flores will receive the national award during the national FFA convention in Indianapolis, Oct. 22-25.
Flores’ service includes:
- Advisor to the Cal Poly chapter, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Science (MANRRS) and the Latinos in Agriculture student organization.
- Established the Multicultural Agriculture Program at Cal Poly in 1994.
- Founding member of the Latino Outreach Council of San Luis Obispo County.
- Board member of Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund.
- Founder, Vision Unida, a local non-profit organization dedicated to Latino leadership.
- Provides support to local community programs in conjunction with the Economic Opportunity Commission and Vision Unida.
- Facilitator and presenter for FFA chapters and other youth leadership programs.
- Annual presenter to Vision Unida’s Community Building Institute held at Cuesta College
The FFA’s H.O. Sargent Diversity Award was established in 1995 to recognize success achieving and promoting diversity in education and the FFA.
The FFA is a national youth organization of 500,823 student members preparing for leadership careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture, with 7,358 local chapters in 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
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