Local professionals visited Fry Elementary as part of the City of Chandler’s Latino Leaders Week during Hispanic Heritage Month to talk with students about careers and the importance of representation.

The City of Chandler produced a short video in which a physician who spoke at the school said she had been invited to participate in Latino Leaders Week because “representation is very important.” The physician described how, as a child, she never had a female physician in her town who was a person of color and said that meeting professionals who resemble students can change how children imagine their future jobs. “If she can do it and she looks like me, maybe this is something I can do too,” the physician said.

Other speakers at the visit urged students to recognize their potential. One speaker said, “I believe in them and that they are the future of this country,” and encouraged students to begin making a difference now. The video’s narrators and participants emphasized both students’ promise and the stress they face, saying early engagement and role models can make a measurable difference in children’s confidence and outlook.

The narrator framed the visits as part of the city’s Hispanic Heritage Month observance, noting that the month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 to include Sept. 15—the anniversary of the Grito de Dolores—and that the federal observance was established as a week in 1968 and expanded to a month in 1988.

The City of Chandler identified the program as Chandler Contigo’s Latino Leaders Week and said doctors and other Valley professionals spoke to multiple grade levels across several Chandler schools. The video concludes with reporter Lydia Curry directing viewers to the City of Chandler’s official YouTube page for more stories.

For the City of Chandler, Lydia Curry narrated and produced the video.