n November 4th, change came to America. Two and a half months later, before a crowd of millions in Washington, that change was cemented when Barack Obama was sworn in as our first African American president. Regardless of which side of the aisle you stand on— or whether or not you voted for Mr. Obama— Inauguration Day made one thing clear for everyone: The face of our country’s leadership is changing. We’ve come a long way since the days when minorities couldn’t vote, let alone hold public office. For that matter, we’ve come a long way since I first entered Congress 17 years ago. At that time, I was one of only three Latinas in the House of Representatives. Today, there are seven of us. That’s an improvement, to be sure, but we still have a ways to go. Women in general continue to be underrepresented at all levels of government. In the last Congress, only 81 out of 485 combined senators and representatives were women. Still, strides are being made: A record number of women will serve in the new Congress, and I know the day is not far off when we will have a Latina in the U.S. Senate. The need for more Latina talent in public service has never been greater. As Hispanics, we are now the country’s second largest demographic group. With our community expected to comprise 20 percent of the country’s population by 2030, it only makes sense that we should have fair representation at the Federal level. After all, we have scores of Hispanic interest publications and even more Latino television programs— isn’t it time we had that same kind of representation in government? What we need now are initiatives to both encourage and prepare Latinas to run for public office. This begins with training at an early age, including increased emphasis on teen mentoring programs. But in order to climb the ladder of success, there is one key component that our community needs to emphasize in particular, and that is education. Access to quality education is essential to the Hispanic community. It is the foundation for ensuring our young people have a seat at the table for decades to come, and for providing our youth with the tools they need to be future leaders. But unfortunately, too many Hispanic children are getting short shrift in the public school system. High school drop out rates are higher for Hispanics than for any other youth group. Meanwhile, teen pregnancy amongst Latinas is nearly twice the national average, a factor that has no doubt contributed to spiking dropout rates. These are issues that my colleagues and I on the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) will address in the new Congress, alongside a number of other key concerns. The New Year has brought more than change to America— it has also brought remarkable challenges. But with an increased diversity of talent and ideas, we should be able to overcome these roadblocks. As the newly elected Chairwoman of the CHC, I will work with my colleagues to turn those obstacles into opportunities for Hispanics. Furthermore, we will focus on a broad range of policy concerns. While immigration continues to be at the forefront of the CHC’s agenda, that matter alone cannot be our End All, Be All concern. Given the rapid growth within our community, we can no longer limit our focus to a mere handful of issues. Today, all issues are Hispanic issues, from education to the economy. This is a tremendously historic and exciting time to be an American. It is also a confusing time and, for many of us, a trying time. But within the confusion there is also enormous potential for progress. As Americans, we are really reevaluating a lot of the practices and policies that brought us to where we are today. For an eager and growing segment of the population, that spells opportunity— opportunity to carve out a real niche for itself within American leadership, and opportunity to help draft a new American narrative. That is just the kind of opportunity that Hispanics need, and just the kind of change our community can believe in.