OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — With over 20 years of experience teaching at Osceola High School, language teacher Sophie Irizarry knows a thing or two about connecting with her students. 

“It is about giving them the opportunity, it is about being here, making it happen, and discovering with them what we are all, as a community, capable of doing,” Irizarry said.

Since 2019, she has turned her passion for teaching into building up young leaders through the Latinos In Action program, also known as LIA. 

The year-long elective course has the goal of empowering students to take on leadership roles in their communities. 

“We have three levels, and we usually have a class that is pretty big because they want to be in the program,” Irizarry said. 

The program focuses on four pillars: leveraging personal and cultural assets, excelling in education, serving the community, and developing leadership skills.

As Irizarry decorates her class, she’s surrounded by a group of returning LIA students who volunteered their time to help set up. 

“Like today, they don’t have to be here. They are here because they want to start and to put the room together. And sometimes someone looks at me and says, miss, I never thought that I was going to be in school by choice,” Irizarry said.

Student Fabiola Lopez graduated from Osceola High School last May, where she was enrolled in Latinos In Action during her junior and senior years.

“And after one year, my junior year, I realized I’m really good at making videos, which is something that I didn’t know before. And I believe that’s what it’s about. It’s about finding yourself, finding what you’re good at,” Lopez said. 

She returned to Miss Irizarry’s classroom to share some big news with the LIA students. 

“I have told some of you guys, but I did apply to work with LIA and if everything works well, I am going to be a region manager for this district,” Lopez said, making it a full circle moment for both teacher and student.

As they hang art together from previous years of Latinos In Action, they think back of Winter Smiles, an event where they partner with the Kissimmee police and fire department to donate toys during the holidays to over 300 children. 

Irizarry says students who are part of Latinos In Action enjoy giving back to their community.

“They are very aware of how when you give, you grow,” she said. 

She describes the program as a source of opportunities for the students. 

“It’s the opportunity for them to discover that they are able to do it, and for me, I feel that I am the bridge,” she said.

Latinos In Action has expanded to 14 states and more than 350 schools across the nation, offering an asset-based approach to bridging the graduation and opportunity gap for Latino students, working from within the educational system to create positive change. 

In Florida, seven counties are part of the program, including Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Lee, Orange, Seminole, and Osceola.  

Most recently, Volusia County School board members approved the curriculum of Latinos In Action to be implemented at eight schools including, middle and high schools, and for the first time, elementary schools.