Roberto J. Rodriguez, assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development at the U.S. Department of Education delivered the keynote address at Hope 2023 in New Orleans.
Designed to spark new ideas and connections about how to best support student parents nationwide, hundreds of educators, students and community partners gathered in The Crescent City this week for the first national conference of Generation Hope—the nonprofit that provides direct support to teen parents in college as well as their children through holistic, two-generation programming.
Nicole Lynn Lewis, Founder and CEO of Generation Hope said that when she founded the organization in 2010, she knew that the mission was bold and ambitious.
“At the core of Generation Hope’s work is our belief that families are the experts when it comes to the problems that we’re trying to solve,” said Lewis, who is the author of Pregnant Girl: A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families. “Our vision for this conference is to create an open and inclusive space where the voices of those who are most impacted can be heard and valued.”
Across the first two days of the conference, ideas from different disciplines and sectors were shared and solutions were shaped collaboratively through a variety of plenary panels and breakout sessions.
“The power of our stories cannot be overstated,” Lewis told the attendees, adding that she hoped participants would think about the “tangible next steps that you can make in your own life, in your work, and in your community.”
Malajah Lopez, a young mother of two, delivered a powerful speech at the opening plenary of the conference. A senior at the University of New Orleans (UNO), she will graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies and has aspirations of pursuing an MBA.
