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Today, nearly half of the world lives in poverty, including nearly a quarter of Californians. The United States, like every nation, grapples with the challenge of income inequality. Colombia is no different.

But our use of technology to change the lives of millions of our citizens has the potential to transform the way the world thinks about lifting those in need out of poverty.

With a population of 47 million, Colombia is the third-largest country in Latin America and has the third-largest economy in South America. Once unimaginable, Colombia can now boast steady GDP growth of nearly 5 percent on average over the past few years and an unemployment rate that has decreased from 12 percent to just over 8 percent.

While Colombia's transformation has ushered in a new era of prosperity, poverty remains one of the most critical challenges we face. READ MORE

When Gozde Aksay moved from Seattle to New York City in 2010 to work for a big financial firm, she was so excited to get the offer, she didn’t negotiate her salary or think to inquire what others in her position mad

“I didn’t really know how expensive New York City was, so when HR asked what I wanted, I said a number, and they said, ‘Alright,’” the 31-year-old software developer recalls. “Throughout my employment that base salary stuck with me, and I didn’t get a promotion because they always told us the company wasn’t doing any better after the crisis.”

A few months later, a male co-worker in her department accidentally revealed his salary in a conversation.

“I realized he was making 30% more than me,” she says. READ MORE

The U.S. national soccer team plays its first World Cup game on Monday against Ghana.

For a country where immigration reform is a such a hot button issue, it’s interesting to note that more than half of the team was born outside the U.S. or have parents who are immigrants.

This year’s team also has a particularly German influence. John Brooks, Timmy Chandler, Julian Green, Jermaine Jones, Fabian Johnson — all were either born in Germany or have a German parent.

There are also four players who are Latino and two players who are Native American. Chris Wondolowski of the Kiowa tribe and and SBNation.com identified DeAndre Yedlin as black, Native American and Latvian.

Take a look at which U.S. national soccer team players disappear when you get rid of immigrants and sons of immigrants. READ MORE

In an earlier post, we showed how Hispanic Adult Millennials aren’t yet where they want to be in their careers. As they work their way toward landing their dream jobs, many are employed in low-wage professions they’ve taken just for the paycheck.

So when it comes to their current jobs, what are their biggest challenges?

Tr3s asked this question as part of its recently-released its 2014 study, “Hispanic Adult Millennials at Work and Play.” This project included quantitative and qualitative explorations of nearly 1,000 Hispanics and non-Hispanics ages 19 to 34, as well as information from Simmons, Pew Hispanic Center, Nielsen, and numerous Viacom studies.

Here are key insights from “Hispanic Adult Millennials at Work and Play”on the subject of workplace challeges:

1 in 4 Millennials with jobs worry about performing well at work. Among those who are employed, job performance is a concern for 23% of Hispanics and 28% of non-Hispanics. In spite of their often less-than-ideal circumstances, doing a good job is still really important to them. The main challenges for Hispanic young adults are improving their skills, feeling valued/noticed/appreciated, and communication issues READ MORE

Although 83 percent of Hispanic students aspire to earn a postsecondary degree, just under a fourth are academically prepared to reach that goal, according to a new report released today by ACT and Excelencia in Education.

The joint report, The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2013: Hispanic Students, shows that 24 percent of ACT-tested Hispanic 2013 high school graduates in the United States met at least three of the four ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, which is lower than the 39 percent of all ACT-tested 2013 graduates who did so.

Similarly, almost half—46 percent—of Hispanic students did not meet any of the four benchmarks, compared to 31 percent of all students.

These findings are particularly timely and relevant, as the number of Hispanics in the U.S. has grown dramatically in the past few years.

• The U.S. Census Bureau estimates Hispanics represented 17 percent (53 million) of the U.S. population in 2012 and are projected to represent 31 percent of the population by 2060. READ MORE

Unfortunately, it is not unusual to hear of someone being fired for job hunting, an attitude that pre-dates the Internet. Employers, not surprisingly, tend to view a job-seeking employee as "disloyal," not focused on their work, and a threat to company secrets, customer lists, etc. While the employer attitude is not new, current technology offers many new ways for a job search to be "outed" and the job to be lost.

When you are employed, looking for a new job is filled with dangers. You need to be careful your current employer doesn't discover that you are considering leaving. I call it a "stealth job search."

Conducting a "stealthy" job search may feel dishonest. But, realistically, a stealth job search is your most effective option. Maintaining a low profile (a.k.a. job search in stealth mode) is the smart thing to do, even though it makes your job search a bit trickier.

Following these 10 steps will not only protect your job, they will protect your identity, too. READ MORE

JC Penney is turning to Hispanics to help rescue itself from years of financial problems.

After a sharp drop in sales and management upheavals, “the struggling retailer [is] ripping up its marketing playbook once again,” says AdAge.

Penney wants to be destination department store for Hispanic shoppers. Ads aimed at Hispanic women will be launched this week during the World Cup.

“Our growth depends on catering to the Latina,” Lyris Leos, director of multicultural marketing at J.C. Penney tells AdAge.
Hispanics are expected to be the largest source of growth for the retailer this year. READ MORE

Despite some struggles in recent years, the $12 billion ready-to-eat breakfast cereal market is poised for a return to growth, according to a report from Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com. The breakfast cereal market is expected to experience cumulative growth of 10% during the 2014-18 forecast period and will reach $13 billion in 2018, Packaged Facts said.

Latinos may help lead the turnaround. David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts, said cereal marketers will benefit from the increasing demographic clout of Latino consumers.

Although the population of children as a whole is expected to decline in the coming years, Packaged Facts noted there will be a “substantial growth” in the population of Latinos under the age of 14. READ MORE

If you think about it, a great networking event can be career-changing. When this kind of magic happens, you connect with people that “up” your skills, you form lasting alliances—you may even engage those with the power to expand your career options and mobility.

Regardless of the line of work you’re in, there’s a built-in expectation that you should be plugged in to the happenings of your industry and region. And according to training firm Contacts Count, if you want to move from quick encounters to true, results-oriented networking, you need to seek out networking opportunities where you can demonstrate both your character and competence.

As you consider approaching relationship-building in a more thoughtful way, here are some pointers that can boost your efforts:

1)    Use the good times to plan for the bad times. Too often, I see people rush to get involved with networks at crunch time, when they’ve been freshly laid off or are panicking about a recent work crisis. But networking doesn’t work that way. Investing time in your network when things are stable makes you real and human to those who know you and makes them far more likely to vouch for you when times are tough. READ MORE

Anyone who's gone house-hunting knows the real estate mantra: location, location, location. If you're hunting for a job, says Denver employment recruiter Kathleen Conners, that mantra changes to: referral, referral, referral.

"People go online and equate connecting with networking, and they are not the same," Conners says.

"I was working with a chemical engineer who'd been laid off and looking for work for six months. He told me he spent hours looking up jobs and filing applications online, and connecting to people on LinkedIn. I said, 'Did you call any of those Linked In connections?' He said no. That was a big mistake. You have to create a human connection using your voice."

With more than 30 years of experience as a headhunter under her belt, Conners, author of "Network For A Job," knows what she's talking about. She contracts with companies who seek out her experience in winnowing the best candidates for jobs, from engineer positions to management. READ MORE

Latinos believe deeply in the American Dream. Our parents, grandparents or ourselves have come to this country in pursuit of it. We are also more optimistic than non-Latinos as it relates to our belief in being able to achieve it.

After living for 17 years in the U.S., I have been deeply inspired by the stories, the struggles and triumphs of many Latinos and their children that are pursuing their dreams of a better life for their families in the U.S. I have talked to many Latinos and Latinas about their dreams and their journeys to pursue it. I learned about their aspirations and the barriers that lay between them and their dreams.

Our dreams are different than non-Latinos. Again and again I heard that Latinos dreams revolved around securing a better future for their families, building their entrepreneurial business and controlling their own destiny. We work very hard to fund the education of their kids we believe in giving back and supporting our parents financially. We try to avoid debt as much as possible and strive to try to build wealth to secure our later years. READ MORE

The Board of Directors of ALPFA (pronounced Alpha), one of the nation's largest and most established Latino professional organizations, selected Charles P. Garcia as its new chief executive officer to succeed longtime CEO Manny Espinoza.

"After an extensive search, we are thrilled to welcome Charlie, who is passionate about our mission of developing Latino business leaders and driving value to our constituency. Our organization will truly benefit from his experience as a Fortune 500 board member, leadership at the highest levels of government and success as an entrepreneur focused on Hispanic consumers," said ALPFA's National Chairwoman Yvonne Garcia.

ALPFA (http://www.alpfa.org ), a 42-year-old organization that began as an association of finance and accounting professionals, supports Latinos in all industries through its 41 chapters across the country and more than 100 student chapters at major colleges and universities. READ MORE

As another group of Millennials prepares to graduate from college and high school, many of them may be repeating the same job-search mistakes of their predecessors – and contributing to their own 'career fails.'

Employers have a number of concerns about hiring Millennials – generally, those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. These doubts are contributing to the unemployment rate for Millennials being roughly double that of the overall population, according to federal government statistics.

“However, Millennials can take steps to address several of these issues and help themselves get the jobs they have been studying for,” said Patty Prosser, chair of OI Global Partners.

The perceptions about Millennials that many employers have include the following, according to career consultants at OI Global Partners:

'About Me’ Attitude: “Many Millennials have an inwardly focused attitude which conveys that everything is about them and they tend to project a sense of entitlement,” said Prosser.

Work Ethic: Millennials are inclined to prioritize work/life balance ahead of their careers and value non-interference with their personal lives over dedication to their jobs.

Weak Communication Skills: “Millennials often do not have good written, verbal or presentation skills and have limited their writings to Twitter posts and text messages. Employers also feel that numerous Millennials lack the ability to communicate with other generations, including customers and co-workers,” added Prosser. READ MORE

After a decade of working 10-hour days as a manicurist, Patty Paredes decided to take a risk and pursue her dream: to become her own boss.

She wiped out her savings, and with the financial help of her mother, Paredes collected $95,000 to open her own nail salon, Nails & Spa 4U, which she inaugurated in March.

Today Paredes works more days and more hours per week than she did at her previous job—and has other things to worry about as a business owner, such as paying rent for her 900-square-foot nail salon. But for the 30-year-old, the extra work and sacrifice pays off, because for her, entrepreneurship is the only viable path for prosperity.

"I know this is a big risk, but it's an investment," said Paredes, who employs three manicurists at her salon in Brooklyn, NY. "All the work I put in is for myself." READ MORE

Hispanics have an appetite, and with an estimated purchasing power of $1.5 trillion by 2015, they are an important audience that grocery chains should not ignore.
Hispanics are spending more frequently on groceries and shopping perishables than other consumer groups in the United States, according to the Nielsen report “Fresh View of Hispanic Consumers.”

Fresh food is the cornerstone of Hispanic grocery shopping, as Hispanics spend $175 more on fresh foods per year than the national average. Fresh food ingredients and home cooking also are central to Hispanic culture, and 75 percent of Hispanic families have a traditional sit-down meal every day, based on the report “The Why Behind The Buy” from Acosta Sales & Marketing and Univision Communications. READ MORE

In a move in which Latinos stand to be the biggest beneficiaries, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are giving San Francisco Bay Area schools $120 million.

Latinos are a dominant segment of the student body in two of the three school districts that are receiving the gift, which aims to finance computers, connectivity and teacher training.

In Ravenswood, the couple pointed out, less than 40 percent of Latino students – who predominate in the schools – have proficiency in English. The district's science studies survived mainly because of volunteers, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

"This means fewer students from low-income and minority backgrounds graduating from high school or attending and succeeding in college," said the couple in an essay they wrote for The San Jose Mercury News.

"This situation doesn't exist for lack of effort by our school leaders," they wrote. "There are many heroic educators doing their best to serve students here. But the challenges are much greater than the resources they receive ... The commitment we're announcing today is our effort to change this." READ MORE

Businesspeople today are saturated with social networks, digital profiles and buzzing forums. Thus, networking on the digital frontier is increasingly important. Here are four ways you can enhance your digital marketing skills.

1. Brand yourself: Imagine this: You’re getting ready for a client meeting and you’re unsure of what to wear. Do you wear a blazer? What kind of makeup is acceptable? Should you comb your hair back or leave it down? The answer is contingent on the occasion. Branding yourself on the digital frontier is no different. From your website to your social media channels, it’s important to consider what messages you are conveying and how you convey them. READ MORE

A top seller once told me an excellent story about networking at tradeshows. He arrived at an event, aimed at hospital workers and spotted yoga on the list of extracurricular activities. So, each morning at 7 a.m., he did mountain pose with fellow attendees.

His rationale? When I asked, he said: “Colleen, I’m on the road to make sales to feed my family. If I’m going to spend all this time away from my wife and kids, I owe it to them to spend every single minute maximizing my relationship-building time. Otherwise, I’m doing a disservice to my family.”

This top seller seized opportunities around him to network. And you know what? Those yoga classes were real door openers. During the tradeshow, people recognized him from the morning session and stop by his booth. This ultimately led to new relationships and sales.

Here are some tips to help you optimize your networking for that next event:

1. Be wise with your travel time. Use in-air time to complete any assigned reading and look through the catalogue to pinpoint workshops you’d like to attend. Check e-mails and knock out other business from the office. That way, you’re prepared when you arrive and have extra time to meet people. READ MORE

The Affordable Care Act includes many provisions that have an impact on women’s health, including cost sharing for contraceptives and no cost for procedures such as pap smears.

To help understand how Obamacare will impact women’s health, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a survey of 2,907 women, ages 18-64, and their health. It had a number of findings for all women. Here are some of the findings for Latinas:

_ Of the nation’s women 18- to 64-years-old, 14 percent are Hispanic.

_ Twenty-eight percent of Latinas report their health as fair or poor compared to 15 percent of all women between the ages of 18 to 64.

_ Just 38 percent of Latinas have health insurance through their employer, compared to 66 percent of white women and 47 percent of black women.

_ Fourteen percent of Latinas have Medicaid coverage, compared to 7 percent of white women and 17 percent of black women. READ MORE

Small business optimism is running high these days, but the news that the U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter is a good reminder of how important it is for every entrepreneur to get in front of economic trends. That means identifying and focusing on pockets of growth.

One potential source of new customers is the country’s fast-growing Hispanic population. Many big corporations began reaching out years ago to the nation’s 50.5 million Hispanics and are spending a fortune to connect. For many smaller businesses without giant marketing teams, however, this fast-growing segment still represents a vast, untapped opportunity.

The Census Bureau found that people of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 16.9% of the U.S. population in 2012, up from 12% in 2000. They represent both the largest minority group and immigrant group. READ MORE