Lindsay Verwey vividly remembers the last time she was the target of a racial slur.

The Lansing Eastern High School freshman was shopping for makeup when she was approached by another girl.

“She just gave me a dirty look and called me a ‘spic,’” she said.

Incidents like that aren’t a common occurrence, Verwey said, but they do happen from time to time.

“It hurts you inside - you feel like you’re not wanted,” she said. “You are not supposed to be anyone else but yourself.

“There’s still a lot of problems we need to solve.”

Verwey was one of about 300 high school students who addressed those problems at the statewide Advocates for Latino Student Advancement in Michigan Education conference, held Friday at the Business College Complex.

Conference organizer Rudy Hernandez was impressed by the number of students in attendance.

“This is probably unprecedented,” said Hernandez, who also is the director for undergraduate diversity for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The conference, which also featured sessions at Lansing Community College for undergraduates, focused on recruiting and retaining Chicano and Latino students.

Hernandez said Latino youth are the largest youth minority group in the United States.

“Despite those numbers our participation rates in higher education still lag way behind,” he said.

Lansing Eastern High School teacher Antonio Vigil said it was important for his students to be on hand for the event.

“If they can produce a dream, if they can imagine it, they can live it,” he said. “But they must have access to making their own dreams.”

Vigil said the conference offered exactly that.

“Today is a day in which students can connect to a tradition, a heritage and a history that both values and promotes education in the Chicano/Latino community,” he said.

MSU Trustee Dorothy Gonzales gave the keynote address in place of actor and activist Edward James Olmos, who missed the morning session of the conference because of a delayed flight.

“We’re exposing our kids to higher education,” Gonzales said. “Showcasing what MSU has to offer and giving our students an opportunity for that American dream.”

Gonzales, whose family was the first to integrate into her southern Michigan public school system, said it’s important for minority students to keep their cultural identities.

“It was thought proper to try to become infused - forget our language, forget our culture,” she said. “It was a struggle.”

“There’s no such thing as a melting pot,” she said. “Everybody brings something to the table.

“We need to value it. We need to appreciate it.”