A college career services expert explains how to make connections that will pay off after you graduate.

Let’s start with defining networking. Susan Brennan, Executive Director of Career Services at Bentley University, thinks students need to redefine the term. Yes, networking is all about building relationship with like-minded people in the same or similar professional field as you, but you should try to focus on building quality contacts over having a lot of acquaintances. Find the influencers, get to know them, and – most importantly – stay in touch with them.

Start slowly: Upperclassmen before alumni, maybe. And step away from the screen: Network in person. READ MORE AT MONEY/TIME

Florida ranks sixth in the nation for its ability to assimilate Hispanics into the population, and is the best for economic opportunities according to a report released by WalletHub.

Each state was measured using 14 metrics, which fit into three sub-categories of assimilation: cultural and civic, educational and economic. Each state’s rankings in the three categories determined its overall composite ranking.

Hispanic people composed 17.4 percent of the 2014 U.S. population, making the group an important focal point of research, according to U.S. Census data.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that by 2060, the Hispanic population will represent 31 percent of the U.S. population. READ MORE AT WUFT PUBLIC MEDIA

We are in the middle of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to honor heritage and culture and celebration of the contributions of Hispanics and Latinos in the United States.

In the Valley, business has been booming for these groups.

There are nearly 100,000 Hispanics in Virginia, according to the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The commonwealth ranks at number nine in the nation when it comes to highest percentage of Hispanic-owned businesses.

These companies are growing 20 percent faster than the national average.

Rosy Hernandez has owned Hernandez Fashions in Harrisonburg for 14 years. She calls her store one of the oldest Hispanic-run businesses in the city. Over the years, she has noticed the increase of immigrants in Harrisonburg. READ MORE AT WHSV.COM

Searching for a new job can often be a lengthy, frustrating process. Yet, you have a much better chance of success when you take the time at the beginning to understand yourself, your goals and your value. Here are seven things worth clarifying in your mind at the very beginning:

1. Your career goals. Are you looking for a job or a career path? Your approach will be different depending on if you are either desperate to just take anything for an income flow; or if you are in the midst of a career change; or if you are young and on the way up; or if you or are working just to keep busy.

2. What your next job will mean for your longer-term career. If you don't expect your next job to last for a long time, or if you see it as a stepping stone to something else down the line, you need to consider that what you do now will be at the top of your résumé during your next job search. READ MORE AT AOL JOBS

CNET's Spanish-language sister site, CNET en Español, has assembled its annual list of 20 Latinos working in technology. As in 2014, this year's list includes a group of men and women leading teams in high-profile companies in and beyond Silicon Valley.

The task has not been easy. It's already difficult to find Latinos in senior positions in large corporations -- and finding them in the field of science and technology is even harder. As we said last year, the expression of finding a needle in a haystack could be rewritten to say that something is "more difficult than finding a Hispanic in the tech industry."

Of course none of this detracts from the enormous talent, commitment and creativity of all the professionals who are part of this list -- quite the opposite. READ MORE AT CNET

Hispanic Heritage Month, or “Mes de la Herencia Hispana,” begins on September 15, the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It continues through October 15, and during that month, Mexico, Chile and Belize also celebrate their independence days.

Let’s take this opportunity to highlight five of the most remarkable women who represent the Latin world in the U.S., and celebrate them for their strength, values, cultural heritage, and the passion they bring to their work.

1. Dolores Huerta, activist

Dolores Huerta, who is of Mexican descent, was born in 1930 in New Mexico, but grew up in Stockton, in the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley, where much of the U.S.’s produce is grown. Shocked by seeing farm workers exhausted by backbreaking labor, she became a powerful advocate for those farm workers, organizing the fight for fair pay and for better working conditions. In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers, a farm workers’ union that continues standing up for workers’ rights today. READ MORE AT CARE2

As you walk into the crowd of hundreds of students and employers at the career fair, you can feel your heart pounding, the blood rushing to your face and your suit trapping all the sweat from your forehead all the way to the tips of your fingers holding on to your portfolio.

It’s not that your résumé isn’t up to par. It’s not that you are under-dressed.

It’s the fact that you are there to network. READ MORE AT IOWA STATE DAILY

The growth in Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States is outstripping that of companies in general and the fastest growth has been in Midwest states, according to a study released Sept. 21.

The number of Hispanic-owned businesses grew by 30 percent in Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Nationally, between 2012 and 2015, the number of Hispanic-owned businesses has grown at an annual rate of 7.5 percent, 15 times faster than the 0.5 percent growth rate for all companies, according to the study by the consulting firm Geoscape and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. READ MORE AT INSURANCE JOURNAL

According to the most recent Total Audience Report from Nielsen, looking across the swath of digital consumers in the U.S., Hispanics are now the most avid smartphone users around. In fact, they are on their phones for more than 14 hours a week for app, audio, video and web purposes.

And, Nielsen Mobile Insights has found that the average Hispanic mobile user uses 658 minutes per month on their mobile plan, which is significantly more than the average of 510 minutes per month for all consumers. When broken down by Hispanic subgroups, bilingual Hispanics dominate in terms of minutes used, as they spend more than 762 minutes per month talking on their mobile devices. READ MORE AT MEDIAPOST

Networking can feel a bit like going to the dentist: You know it's important to your overall career health, but it can be so painful. So it’s understandable that you might want to take a no-nonsense approach to these events. Your time is in short supply, and really, we’d all rather spend whatever’s leftover from a 4060-plus hour workweek at happy hour with friends, not chatting it up with random strangers. Yet, as tempting as it might be to get straight to the point with your laser-focused career questions, that tactic might not be serving you well in the long run. READ MORE AT REFINERY 29

A half-century ago this week, Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers voted to join Larry Itliong and Filipino farmworkers’ in commencing the Delano Grape Strike. Their fight for justice would serve as a catalyst for the Latino civil rights movement and mark the beginning of more widespread acknowledgement of Latinas as movement leaders. But Dolores Huerta was not the first to lead Latinos towards justice, she was simply part of the next generation of Latina leaders in a long lineage of freedom fighters committed to empowering our communities.

Similarly, far from the fields of Delano, CA but rooted just as firmly in the heart of the Latino community, we find Dr. Ana Yáñez-Correa, a national social justice leader who has been fighting to reform the criminal justice system in Texas- a state whose tough on crime rhetoric has given it one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation.

 READ MORE AT DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE

Save for International Women’s Day, it's rare to hear or read anything about the ways in which Latinas have impacted women’s lives both in the U.S. and worldwide. Why is that? Was it decided somewhere along the way that women of color had their own sheroes -- heroines who fought for some odd form of equality that is not, in fact, “for all” but just for them? It sometimes feels like that’s the case.

Yet while Latinas have benefited from all of the hard work and advocacy demonstrated by non-Latina feminists, civil rights leaders and authors, all Americans have benefited greatly from the advocacy and general badassery demonstrated by Latinas in America. READ MORE AT HUFFINGTON POST

Latinas in the U.S. are reaching higher than their male counterparts, surpassing them in higher education and working their way to higher level jobs according to statistics by the PEW Research Center and Améredia, a multi-cultural marketing firm. This success is despite the fact that teen pregnancy and poverty continue to pose a problem for the Latino community as a whole.

“In general, I think women are at the forefront of the things that are happening in the Hispanic community,” said Catalina Steckbauer, owner and founder of the Community Wellness Center in Pocatello. “I think now the young Hispanic women are taking advantage of educational opportunities. I could be wrong, but what I see is the young women leading the way.”

This trend of educational attainment isn’t new for women as a whole. In 1975, women officially outnumbered men on college campuses in the U.S., and since then, the gap has only grown. In 2015, women made up 75 percent of college students in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics. READ MORE AT IDAHO STATE JOURNAL

Companies that want to sell products and services to Hispanic people need to understand this fast-growing population. Here are some recommendations on how to succeed:

Speaking Spanish isn’t enough: Owners contemplating the Hispanic market need to do more than hire Spanish-speaking employees, said Francisco Valle, a consultant in San Diego who helps companies build business with Hispanic customers.

And it’s not enough to just include Hispanic actors in commercials or advertisements.

“To go after the Hispanic market, you really need to develop a relationship with them first,” Valle said. He recalls working with a hospital that didn’t have bilingual staffers at the reception desk. Spanish-speaking visitors were directed to a phone where they could reach someone who spoke Spanish. Hispanic visitors didn’t feel welcome, Valle said.
Start your ad campaign from scratch: Advertising campaigns must be created with Hispanics in mind. An English ad translated into Spanish not only may fail to resonate with Hispanics, the translation could be incorrect, Valle said. READ MORE AT TULSA WORLD

Hispanic business leaders from across the country have convened at a Houston hotel for the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 2015 National Convention, which will run through Tuesday.

In addition to networking, it’s an opportunity to hear from prominent CEOs, including Tom Greco at Frito-Lay North America and Manolo Sánchez at BBVA Compass, and politicians including presidential hopeful Jeb Bush. About 6,000 people are expected to attend.

In advance of the convention, chamber CEO and President Javier Palomarez talked with the Houston Chronicle. Excerpts, condensed and edited for clarity, follow:

Q: What are the major issues facing Hispanic business owners?

A: Probably the major issue facing all small businesses is access to credit and capital. All American small businesses want to continue to grow. READ MORE AT SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS

Few would deny that our nation’s economy has picked up.

The housing market has gained traction, gasoline prices are falling and more people are landing jobs, although work is still hard to come by for some.

But if you’re willing to think a little outside the box, employment opportunities are out there, according to a recent article in Kiplinger. And we’re not talking about a Realtor who suddenly gets the urge to sell insurance.

No, we’re going further afield than that.

How about a professional sleeper? Yep, you heard that right. There are actually people who get paid to sleep. But before you get too excited, I should warn you that there are plenty of others clamoring for that same job, so the competition might be fierce. How fierce? In one case, a single applicant was chosen out of 7,800 people who applied for the same position. READ MORE AT SAN GABRIEL VALLEY TRIBUNE

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States overall, but a new report finds that cancer remains the number one killer of U.S. Hispanics.

Hispanics now make up over 17 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In a new report, the American Cancer Society predicts that nearly 126,000 new cancers will be diagnosed among Hispanics this year and an estimated 38,000 will die from the disease.

Although overall cancer rates are 20 percent lower among Hispanics compared with whites and cancer death rates are 30 percent lower, cancer is still the biggest killer among Hispanics, said cancer society epidemiologist Kim Miller, one of the authors of the report. READ MORE AT WEBMD

When NxStage Medical Inc. realized Spanish-speaking people made up 15 percent of the market for its home kidney dialysis equipment, the company created a website and brochures printed in Spanish.

NxStage, which started its marketing campaign to Hispanics a year ago, has also increased its staff of Spanish-speaking customer service agents.

"If we're doing our job in the community, 15 to 20 percent of our growth would come from the Hispanic population," says Jeff Burbank, CEO of the Lawrence, Massachusetts-based company.

There are about 55 million Hispanics in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau, which reported Hispanics accounted for more than half the U.S. population growth from 2000-10. By 2060, it's expected there will be 119 million Hispanics, making up nearly 29 percent of the population. READ MORE AT ABCNEWS

Networking is one of those things we all know we need to do, but never get around to because we’re too busy doing other things. Too busy building our customer base, enhancing our brand, winning more business … but the funny thing is, networking is the route to all of these things. So we don’t put it off because we’re too busy to network, but because we’re nervous.

Walking into a room full of people and making conversation with strangers is always difficult, so of course you’re going to feel a little uncomfortable. In fact, you’ll probably wish the ground would swallow you up with the number of awkward silences you’ll encounter at first. But the thing to remember is it’ll get easier the more you do it. Nobody is a born networker and everyone gets nervous when approaching strangers in a room. READ MORE AT THE GUARDIAN

While small business loan applications submitted by Latino entrepreneurs grew 18% in the past year, Latino business owners face significant hurdles in securing financing. They still lag behind in the necessary factors needed to secure financing such as annual revenue, credit scores, age of business and operating expenses.

A study released today by Biz2Credit that analyzed the financial performance of more than 1,000 Latino-owned businesses with less than 250 employees and less than $10 million in annual revenues, found that the:

• Average annual revenue for Latino-owned businesses was $68,540, trailing slightly behind the figure of $70,641 for non-Latino-owned businesses (although an improvement from the previous year) READ MORE AT FORBES