More than 500 students from universities across the nation are expected to attend the 12th annual National Hispanic Business Association Leadership Conference hosted by Cal State Northridge's LBA. The conference will be held at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton on Feb. 14-16.

The conference provides the opportunity for students to network in a series of career enhancing activities and to learn essential information needed to launch a successful professional career. There will be a series of workshops facilitated by corporate representatives and motivational speakers.

More than 40 companies sponsor and participate in various areas of the conference.

Last year, CSUN's LBA was recognized as the ³2001 Most Outstanding Chapter Nationwide² by NHBA.

The NHBA is a national network of students and alumni whose mission is to promote the educational and professional welfare of Hispanic students. The vision of the founders is to nationalize the leadership conference by giving different universities the opportunity to empower student leaders by hosting the conference each year.

For more information about LBA, contact Nancy Landa at (818) 386-5907 or visit the LBA website at www.csunlba.org. For information about the conference, visit www.nhba.org.

California State University, Northridge has more than 31,000 full- and part-time students and offers 59 bachelor's and 41 master's degrees. Founded in 1958, it is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley and the third largest in the 23-campus CSU system. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges recently said CSUN "stands as a model to other public urban institutions of higher education."