Joseph N. Velasquez, Founder & CEO of OjoOido.com shall be a roundtable presenter at the 34th International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 in Berkeley, California. Joseph will be working as a team of roundtable presenters and conference participants pursuing deep understandings and new ways to approach critical thinking in teaching and learning.
Critical Thinking in Study Skills Training: Para Todos (For Everyone): Joseph N. Velasquez, Founder & CEO of OjoOido.com
Joseph N. Velasquez, Founder & CEO of OjoOido.com shall be a roundtable presenter at the34th International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 in Berkeley, California in a panel discussing Critical Thinking in Public Citizenship. Joseph will be working as a team of roundtable presenters and conference participants pursuing deep understandings and new ways to approach critical thinking in teaching and learning.
Velasquez’s father was a Bracero during the 1950’s Bracero Program and subsequently immigrated, with his family, to California. As an immigrant from Mexico, Velasquez knows first hand the importance of competent academic coaching, healthy mentorship and sustained role-model guidance. Velasquez is bilingual, bi-cultural, and attended a public high school (Pierce High School) in Arbuckle, a small agricultural community in Northern California. In spite of growing up in a humble farm-labor family, Velasquez found a way to attend and succeed at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
What is the significance of OjoOido.com being selected as a Roundtable Discussion Leader?
Velasquez believes that the first, and undoubtedly most important, strategy of academic achievement is to recognize that you are responsible for your own learning. Most Latino students want to be a part of a different and better world, but often they do not know how. It has been estimated that 90 percent of the 5 million students attempting to be the first in their family to earn a college degree will never graduate. New research released on July 17 from ACT Inc. and the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships finds that while 95 percent of ACT-tested students from low-income families said they wish to pursue some type of postsecondary education, only 59 percent enroll in college right after high school. For the U.S. to regain the top ranking in the world for college degree attainment, Latinos will need to earn 5.5 million more degrees by 2020.
As Founder and CEO of OjoOido.com, Velasquez inculcates to its subscribers the tremendous power of the human mind and how one can achieve incredible tasks if properly trained in activating the mind’s power. Critical thinking is the process we use to reflect on, access and judge the assumptions underlying our own and other’s ideas and actions. OjoOido.com offers a sustainable, replicable and scalable web-based core study habits and skills development program that is designed to develop basic critical thinking and strategic planning.
It is imperative that Latino/Hispanic students be equipped with a fundamental understanding of critical thinking and strategic planning so they can take command of their thinking to enable them to reason through challenges they will face in the classroom and in their personal lives.
According to research conducted by ACT and Excelenica in Education, “83 percent of [Latino]/Hispanic students aspire to earn a postsecondary degree, just under a fourth are academically prepared to reach that goal…” Preparing Latino/Hispanic students for a successful future, that ideally may include a “traditional” college experience, must begin by teaching and coaching students to develop conscious, deliberate control over the mechanisms of their own learning. Due to the rapid addition of new information and the advancement of science and technology we are all well advised to constantly expand our knowledge and understanding beyond simple information gathering and reliance on the adopted opinions of others.
With science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations slated to become all the more important to our growth as a nation, it is in our national interest to break down the barriers for Latinos. Developing the core academic habits and skills that are required to successfully develop the next generation of Latino talent for STEM positions is a prerequisite in creating a reliable and skilled workforce to fill those positions. To effectively encourage greater participation and access in STEM it is imperative that all Latino students develop a basic understanding of basic critical thinking and strategic planning.
Communicating to our Latino/Hispanic students that their minds have tremendous power and can do incredible tasks once they know how to activate its power will help them succeed in school, in their chosen careers, and as citizens. “The best way to predict your future is to create it!” Join us!
About the Founder
Joseph Velasquez has 20 plus years combined government and private practice experience in corporate/general counsel business law, international law and civil litigation. Joseph is also the founder and CEO of OjoOido.com PBC and OjoOido-Academics.com LLC, enterprises exclusively dedicated towards overcoming the obstacles that inhibit the academic success of the Latino youth in our country. Throughout his professional legal career Joseph has maintained a passionate interest in innovative educational programs designed to strengthen under-resourced Latino student’s ability to succeed in challenging academic environments.
Joseph has extensive experience in K-12 education and higher education. He was a member of the California Mini-Corps Program; an elementary teacher in the Los Angeles School District’s Bilingual Program; an elementary teacher in the Culver City Unified School District’s Spanish Immersion Program; peer counselor in the University of Southern California’s Learning Skills and Development Center; and, Joseph has been a university administrator of campus-based programs at both private and public institutions. He served as the Director of the USC Norman Topping Student Aid Fund and the Director of the Academic Support Referral Center at San Jose State University.
Joseph holds a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Southern California, a Civil Litigation Mediation Certificate from the University of Texas at Austin, and a California Multiple Subject Bilingual Teaching Credential (expired) from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
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