2025 Latinx Youth Conference Schedule
Your Future, Your Story: Turn the Page to Success
Celebrating 25 Years
This year, we proudly celebrate 25 years of inspiring students to pursue their education, embrace their identity, and start shaping their future today. Together, we’ve empowered generations of young leaders to dream big, overcome obstacles, and write their own success stories. Here’s to continuing the legacy of unlocking potential and building brighter futures!
Meet Your Panelists
Joseph Malone
Joseph is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who arrive directly to Grand Rapids, MI when he was 8 years old. He grew up on the SE side of Grand Rapids near Wealthy and Fuller. A child to two entrepreneur parents, he grew up working in family businesses his entire childhood. He adopted the entrepreneurial spirit and has been creating new businesses since then. Today, he is co-founder and VP of Operations to HOLO Footwear, a local footwear company, on a mission to make high quality, fashionable and performance-based footwear; all made from recycled or eco-friendly materials. HOLO can be found at retailers like Nordstrom, Dillard's, Von Maur, and many more to come.
Paola Mendivil
Paola R. Mendivil is the Bilingual Business Development Officer at Grow, where she provides access to affordable and responsible working capital loans to small businesses in West Michigan. Additionally, she is Vice President of Catering for her family's businesses: El Granjero Mexican Grill, established in 2007. As a Ferris State University Graduate, Paola was awarded the University's Pacesetter Award in 2021. Paola continues to be involved with the institution by serving on the FSU Latino Alumni Association since 2022. Paola is involved with the Latina Network and also serves on the Board for the Arts Marketplace. Paola currently serves as Secretary for the newly formed Michigan Latino Restaurant Association. Paola was named Crain's Grand Rapids 40 Under 40 and received the Detroit Lions Hispanic Leadership Award in 2024.
Melissa Boughner
Melissa Boughner was born in El Salvador and moved to Northern California when she was just 3 years old. Raised by immigrant parents who worked tirelessly to provide for their family, Melissa learned the value of hard work, resilience, and perseverance from a young age. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Utah State University and a Master’s in Business Administration, breaking barriers along the way. Now, at 31, Melissa is the proud President of the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, fulfilling her dream of giving back to the Latino community. She is happily married to her high school sweetheart, and together they are raising three daughters in West Michigan.
Omar Arredondo
Omar Arredondo is a passionate storyteller and video creator with over a decade of experience. Born and raised in Mexico City, he takes pride in his heritage and uses it as a foundation to create authentic, impactful stories that resonate with diverse audiences. As the founder and director of AVES Films, Omar uses his roots and creative vision to produce meaningful visuals that inspire change and help brands grow. Before launching AVES Films, he worked as the Director/Producer of Community Affairs at WOOD TV8, where he used the power of video to elevate voices and drive community impact.
Challenge Winners
Isabella Rivera
Winner of "Letter to YOur Future Self"
Grandville Middle School
Layla Galvan
Winner of "Cultural Narrative"
Grandville Middle School
Ashley Gutierrez
Winner of "Art & Culture"
Westwood Middle School
Jiancarlo Ocapmo
Winner of "Reflection on Educational Journey"
Wyoming Middle School
Keynote Speaker
Stephan Dyer
Originally from Costa Rica, Stephan Dyer is a former banker turned comedian, keynote speaker and corporate trainer. In 2017, after becoming one of the youngest senior managers at Scotiabank Toronto, he quit his lucrative bank job to pursue his professional career in stand-up comedy.
Since then, he has been featured on Just For Laughs, Comedy Central, The Second City, TEDx, and some of the world’s largest comedy festivals!
Fresh off his national tour, ‘Surviving Canada,’ which spanned 15 cities and boasted 26 consecutive sold-out shows, Stephan Dyer recently filmed his debut English comedy special at Paradise Theatre in Toronto – to premiere on September 10.
He successfully founded the reTHINK Group, its corporate training company, which has grown to reach 50,000+ professionals across 16 countries including Canada, Switzerland, England, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico, and the United States. Some of their most notable clients include Coca Cola, Uber,Toyota, EY, KPMG and TELUS.
In 2021 Stephan was awarded the Distinguished Toastmaster Award (DTM) and was featured on the cover of Toastmaster Magazine, the largest public speaking magazine in the world, distributed to over 364,000 members across 143 countries.
Stephan is currently an instructor at the University of Toronto where he delivers the course “Business Presentations and Public Speaking”. In 2024, he was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award for Business and Professional Studies by the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, recognizing his outstanding contributions to student learning and lifelong education.
He is the proud founder of NotWorking to Networking, a not-for-profit organization that helps Latinx newcomers in Canada achieve meaningful jobs.