ASPIRA

ASPIRA is a nonprofit organization focused on helping Puerto Rican and Latino youth to increase their educational attainment, take pride in their culture, and learn leadership skills so that they can become contributing members in their community. The organization was created to address the ongoing problem of high dropout rates among Puerto Ricans and the self-esteem issues that surface when minority youth are integrated into a different culture and expected to assimilate. This entry provides an overview of the founding and purpose of the organization as well as a brief explanation of some of the many activities that ASPIRA offers its participants.

ASPIRA was founded in New York City in 1961 by Antonia Pantoja and members of the Puerto Rican Association for Community Affairs (PRACA). A Puerto Rican herself, Pantoja became a successful educator in the United States despite her humble beginnings in Barrio Obrero in Puerto Rico. Troubled by the low educational attainment among youth in her Puerto Rican community in New York, Pantoja anticipated the long-term effects that would be experienced by the community if its future leaders were not educated and trained to take on leadership roles. She worked with other community leaders to develop a plan to create an organization where youth could come together for mentoring, educational advocacy, leadership training, scholarship information, and empowerment through learning about and taking pride in their Puerto Rican history and culture.

Originally designed for Puerto Rican youth, the organization eventually expanded its programs to include all Latino youth. Today, there is a total of seven ASPIRA organizations that collectively serve more than 50,000 youth and families annually. [Page 103]New York founded the first ASPIRA organization in 1961, followed by Illinois and New Jersey in 1968, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico established organizations in 1969, the Florida ASPIRA organization was started in 1981, and the Connecticut ASPIRA was established in 1990. All seven of the state associations use the ASPIRA Process Model and run many of the same or similar programs, striving toward the goal of educational attainment and empowerment of Latino youth. A proven success, the ASPIRA Process Model is a three-step intervention model that stresses the development of potential. Students are taught to first become aware of the situation, then to analyze the consequences, and finally to take action that will effect change.

When selecting a name for the organization, the founders wanted a simple upbeat word that would convey confidence and optimism. They wanted the participating youth to aspire to greater things, so from aspirar, the Spanish the word for “aspire,” came the name ASPIRA. Alumni and participants in the program are called ASPIRAntes. The ASPIRA logo carries a sleek image of a little bird that represents the pitirre, a small bird known for outsmarting birds that are much larger in size. The ASPIRA mission, as found on the organization's Web site, is “to promote the development of the Puerto Rican and Latino community through education and leadership development of its youth.”