On March 11 of 2023, Leodis V. McDaniel High School hosted the PPS sponsored Multilingual Family Conference for all interested families with affiliation to PPS. There were breakout sessions in different languages arranged to overlap throughout the day, Anthony P. Chavez spoke about his grandfather, Cesar Chavez, and a notable scholarship workshop was hosted.
Organized by PPS Migrant Education, a little more than 100 parents and children came to the conference. Breakfast was served at 8:30 and lunch was served a little before 12 p.m. Many education-related organizations held tables such as the Multnomah County Library, PPS College and Career Coordinators, with handouts and information about how they can best support students. While the event was arranged to support minority families within PPS, there was valuable information about volunteer opportunities and many broadly-applicable resources for all students. From 9 a.m. to shortly after 3 p.m., there was a scholarship application workshop hosted by a Linfield professor.
The opening ceremony was held in the library at about 10 a.m. – it wrapped up at about 11:30 – with guest speaker Anthony Chavez, who reminded attendees of the value of service and education. There were translators present for English, Mandarin, Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, and Arabic-speaking listeners. His speech closed with a powerful sentiment: “I hope that you never forget the mindset of ‘yes we can’ [Si Se Puede]. Together, as a community, we’re stronger; we can do so much more for each other while still respecting everybody’s dignity,” he said.