With the rise in New Latin American Music Culture, something dear to many students at HPHS, predominantly Hispanic students, many seniors waited in a long line to meet a well known Latina pop artist.
Chiquis Rivera, known for her singing career and the daughter of Jenny Rivera, helped represent the Latin Grammys in a beneficial way to spread the word about the event, with the help of Chase Bank Representatives to assist her in the outreach event. Yet, instead of singing as she is known for, she instead decided to do something more impressive, using her influence for financial literacy workshops.
She emphasized the importance of credit scores, loans and credit management; all things she wished she received before fame and accumulating debt.
“It was cool. Usually our school doesn’t do things like that, so I guess it was a cool experience to have someone come and have other people come talk to us cause we don’t have many things like that at our school.” says Diego Tapia
While many students were excited to see Chiquis Rivera, not many knew what to expect. Some assumed she was going to perform and dance, while others thought she was her for other reasons such as a surprise appearance, especially someone of her fame and popularity.”
“It was half and half of what I expected when I heard Chiquis was coming to the school.” Says Jaylen Rodriguez, a Senior at HP. “Honestly, I didn’t really dislike anything about the event, it was a pretty cool event to learn and watch to hear people talk about how they worked for themselves.”
Some did like the event, with some stating that they were intrigued by how Chiquis Rivera was using her influence to help benefit students.
“I thought the event was really good and never thought Chiquis would come to HP. It wasn’t what I expected. I was actually surprised when I heard that someone at Chiquis level would come to our school”, stated by one of the seniors who attended.
Some of the many topics Chiquis covered were Credit Scores, how to increase and how they decrease, as well as advocating for the importance of good credit students should try to achieve.
With the talks of financial literacy buzzing around HP, the school has announced that they will be making financial literacy classes mandatory once they introduce them in 2-3 years from now. The classes will teach students topics such as Interest rates, loans, mortgages, as well as many other topics students will need to know once they graduate.
Written by Marco P., staff writer