ASPIRA Launches Cyber Safety Site
ASPIRA of New York has launched a bilingual website dedicated to promoting safety and security online.
The website,Cafe Aspira, covers malicious programs, discusses cyberbullyingand identifies various types of cyber child sex offenders and their methods.
The site also features a section on cyber fraud, covering phishing, credit card scams and identity theft schemes.
Café Aspira provides advice and links to resources about keeping safe, as well as what to do if victimized.
“Café Aspira is a tool for becoming cyber savvy and understanding how to avoid being the victim of a cyber predator, bully or fraud,” said Magda Yrizarry, chair of ASPIRA of New York’s board of directors.
“Café Aspira will help answer questions about online security and be a source for advice on how to safely navigate the Web.”
ASPIRA HONORS PUBLIC ADVOCATE GOTBAUM,
VERIZON AND LATINO ACHIEVERS AT 2009 AWARDS GALA
ASPIRA honored New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Verizon Communications at its annual awards gala. Gotbaum and Verizon Senior Vice President Andrés Irlando were presented with Dr. Antonia Pantoja Leadership Awards, named for ASPIRA’s founder, a tireless advocate of the city’s Hispanic youth who established ASPIRA in 1961.“Dr. Pantoja, stressed the importance of education and articulated through the agency’s name the aspirations of Latino youth to succeed, contribute and lead,” said Magda N. Yrizarry, chair of ASPIRA’s board of directors, at the awards reception, held May 19 at the New York Times building. “For their generous, selfless commitment to Dr. Pantoja’s goals for our young people, it is with great pride that we present our leadership awards to Betsy Gotbaum and Verizon.”
Irlando was also recognized for his own community service and professional achievements and presented with an ASPIRA Circle of Latino Achievers Award. Circle of Latino Achievers Awards were also presented to:
• Franklin Alvarez, Con Edison
• Ofelia Castiblanco, WNBC and WNJU
• Betty Diaz, NBC Universal
• Raul Russi, BASICS/Promesa Systems
ASPIRA: Extend Mayoral Control of Schools
At hearings and other public forums, ASPIRA time and again has urged state legislators to leave the mayor in charge of the city school system.
“Mayoral control of New York City’s public schools has made one thing abundantly clear,” says ASPIRA Executive Director Hector Gesualdo. “When there’s accountability at the top of the system, it’s far better for kids than when there’s deniability throughout the system.”
The expiration July 1 of the 2002 law that put the mayor in charge of schools and the stalemate in the state senate, however, threatened the future of mayoral control, despite passage in the assembly of a bill extending the mayor’s authority.
Gesualdo has urged the senate to ”extend mayoral control immediately and spare children and taxpayers the petty politics, corruption and widespread academic failure—particularly in minority communities—that were the hallmarks of decentralization.“