UC Merced group to bring GOP strategist to campus for annual summit
Political consultant, CEO and writer Leslie Sanchez and nationally syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrete have been announced as the speakers for this year’s Opportunity in Action Summit at UC Merced.
At the event, put on by the College Republicans student group, Navarrete will interview Sanchez on trending topics such as women in leadership, immigration and the California drought. The summit will take place at 6:30 p.m. April 10 at the Lakireddy Auditorium on campus.
Sanchez is well-known for advising George W. Bush’s campaign during the 2000 presidential election. According to her biography on the event website, Sanchez was integral in helping attract Latino voters in key states, which contributed to Bush gaining 37 percent of the Latino vote.
After Bush’s victory, Sanchez was appointed as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.
Sanchez also created her own consulting firm, a Republican strategy group created for marketing toward Latino voters. She is an author and makes regular appearances on CNN, Fox and MSNBC.
This will be Navarrete’s third appearance at UC Merced. He was a guest speaker at last year’s Opportunity in Action Summit, where he interviewed Julian Castro, then mayor of San Antonio and current secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Navarrete also headlined UC Merced’s first commencement ceremony in 2008.
Martin Chavez, event coordinator and third-year economics student at UC Merced, said Sanchez was invited because the group believes that her story will resonate with UC Merced students and the community.
Sanchez grew up in a low-income community in suburban Houston and saved for college selling encyclopedias door to door, according to the biography.
She attended George Washington University, where she graduated with a journalism degree, and earned an MBA from Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School.
Last year’s event focused on bipartisanship, but this year’s event will center on women in leadership, a topic College Republicans believes needs more attention. Chavez said the idea came from hearing about women in politics still having to face more scrutiny over their personal lives and looks than men.
“We wanted to bring someone that would inspire women and that could speak on these trending issues,” Chavez said.
Chavez said the idea behind the summit is to give students the opportunity to engage with national leaders. It is common for political leaders to visit bigger and older universities, but Chavez said he believes UC Merced students deserve the same opportunity.
Chavez also said he believes it is these types of events that help enhance students’ college experience.
Last year’s inaugural summit gathered a little more than 200 people, a mix of students and community members. Chavez said he expects this year’s attendance to be a little larger based on the response the group received last year.
Tickets for the event are $25 and can be purchased at www.liveopportunity.org.
This story was originally published March 30, 2015 at 7:33 PM with the headline "UC Merced group to bring GOP strategist to campus for annual summit."