by SER National | Sep 14, 2026 | News & Updates
IRVING, Texas, Sept. 15, 2026 — SER National joins Americans across the country in observing Hispanic Heritage Month, the annual celebration held Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 that honors the history, culture, and contributions of Hispanic Americans. This year’s national theme, “Unidos, Somos Más” — “Together, We Are More” — is the operating principle of a nation that has drawn its strength from people of every origin building something together.
“That is the American triumph,” says Ignacio Salazar, president and chief executive officer of SER National. “No other country has woven so many backgrounds, languages, talents and skills into a single fabric and made it stronger for the weaving. That is why the rest of the world studies the United States and tries to copy it. Hispanic Americans are among the threads that run through every part of that fabric, often in places the public never thinks to look,” he adds.
Consider the record. Mario Molina, a Mexican-born American and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry, identified the ozone hole. Luis Alvarez, a Nobel scientist, explained that an asteroid impact ended the age of dinosaurs. Severo Ochoa won the Nobel Prize in medicine on how cells copy genetic information, and Lydia Villa-Komaroff led the research team that first coaxed bacteria into producing human insulin for diabetes treatment.
The same energy shows up on Main Street. The Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative reports the number of Latino-owned businesses in the United States grew 44 percent from 2018 to 2023. Nationally, the economic output of U.S. Latinos is at $4.4 trillion in 2024, the fourth-largest economy in the world and larger than Japan’s. The Latino labor force grew 5.5 percent that year, the strongest growth on record, and one in five people living in the United States is now Latino.
“Every one of those numbers is a person who got up this morning and went to work,” states Salazar. “A $4.4 trillion economy is not built by a few famous names. It is built by nurses and welders, teachers and truck drivers, coders and construction crews, and small-business owners who opened their doors before sunrise. Hispanic Heritage Month is the country pausing to say: We see you, and we are stronger because you are here.”
SER has been part of that story for 62 years, with a single, nonpartisan mission: preparing people for productive, unsubsidized employment through education, job skills training, and literacy. Through the SER Network of Affiliates, with more than 200 locations across America and Puerto Rico, SER serves more than 1 million people each year. Its measure of success has never changed: a job that supports a family and a career that supports a future.
“The best way to honor the people who broke barriers is to make sure the next generation never meets them,” Salazar said. “When we put a credential in someone’s hand and a paycheck in someone’s pocket, we are not helping one community. We are adding to what America can do. Unidos, somos más. Together, we are more. That has always been the whole point.”
SER National calls on all Americans to mark this month with action, not just applause: learn the stories of the Hispanic Americans who built and sustain their own hometowns; hire, mentor or train a worker looking for a foothold; and stand with the employers, educators and community organizations that keep the nation’s workforce strong. The fabric holds because every thread does its part.
by SER National | Sep 10, 2026 | News & Updates
“Twenty-five years ago, hundreds of Americans went to work and never came home. Firefighters, police officers, flight crews, office workers, service workers, and men and women in uniform gave everything that day. Their families have carried that loss for a quarter century,” said Ignacio Salazar, President & CEO of SER National. “We remember each of them not as a number but as a neighbor, a colleague, a parent and a friend whose life had purpose and whose absence is still felt.”
America has not forgotten, and it has not stood still. The country reformed how it protects its people, strengthened the bonds among its communities, and rediscovered a shared sense of purpose.
“At SER, we honor them by doing what they were doing that morning: showing up, working hard, and giving our best to one another,” Salazar said. For SER National and the SER Network of Affiliates, that story of loss and the promise of rebuilding is also a story about work. Every year, the SER Network serves more than one million people seeking training, skills, employment, and a path to opportunity. The SER Network joins the nation in a solemn moment of remembrance and in a renewed commitment to the opportunity, unity, and strength that define America at its best.
“Today, I ask every American to do three things,” Salazar said. “Pause and remember the lives lost and the families who still grieve. Thank the first responders in your community who stand ready to run toward danger. And then go to work, in whatever form that takes, with the same devotion those we lost brought to theirs. Mentor someone. Hire someone. Train someone. Give of yourself to others, because that is how this country has always grown stronger, and that is how we keep faith with those who gave everything on September 11, 2001.”
by SER National | Sep 6, 2026 | News & Updates
IRVING, Texas — SER National today joins communities across the country in observing Labor Day and honoring the workers whose skill, discipline, and ingenuity have built the strongest economy on earth.
“Labor Day belongs to the people who build, teach, heal, harvest, code and create,” said Ignacio Salazar, President and CEO of SER National. “Generation after generation, the American worker has met every change in the economy with skill, discipline, and determination. That capacity to adapt is the quiet engine of American prosperity, and it is the reason this Nation leads the world.”
This year’s observance carries singular meaning: It is the first Labor Day of the Nation’s 250th anniversary year. For two and a half centuries, American workers have adapted to every transformation of the economy, from the farm to the factory floor, from the assembly line to the digital age. Each generation has answered change with new ideas, new industries, and new prosperity.
“SER has spent 62 years proving a simple truth: When you invest in a worker, you strengthen a family, a community, and a country,” Salazar said. “New technologies are opening new industries at a pace no generation has seen before. Our task is to make certain that every American who is willing to work has the training to seize that opportunity, because America’s next chapter, like every chapter before it, will be written by its workers.”
SER has stood with the American worker through 62 years of that story. Founded in 1964, SER today serves more than 1 million people annually through the SER Network of Affiliates- 200 locations in more than 25 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico- delivering education, job training, and employment services to those ready to work.
As artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and new energy systems reshape the labor market, SER’s mission, preparing workers for the jobs of today and tomorrow, has never been more central to the national interest.
“This Labor Day, SER National invites employers, educators, and civic and government leaders to partner with the SER Network of Affiliates to train the workforce their communities need,” says Salazar. “We encourage every individual seeking new skills or a new start to connect with a local SER Affiliate and explore opportunities that will continue to empower America, one worker at a time.”
by SER National | Jul 3, 2026 | News & Updates
SER-JOBS FOR PROGRESS NATIONAL, INC. HONORS THE WORKERS, THE SKILLS, AND THE SHARED RESOLVE THAT HAVE CARRIED AMERICA ACROSS TWO AND A HALF CENTURIES.
Irving, Texas — As the United States marks 250 years of independence, today, on July 4, 2026, SER National joins communities across the country in celebrating a milestone few generations are privileged to witness: two and a half centuries of a nation built, sustained, and continually renewed by the talents of its people.
“Two hundred fifty years ago, a group of people declared that they were stronger together, and every generation since has had to prove it anew,” said Ignacio Salazar, President and CEO of SER National. “What we celebrate this Independence Day is not only a founding document, but the daily decision of millions of Americans to bring their skills, their labor, and their hope to a common future. That is the experiment, and it is succeeding.”
The semi-quincentennial is more than a date on the calendar. It is a testament to an idea once called the grand experiment: that a country drawn from every origin, background, and experience could become not many people, but one. From many, one. That promise, present at the nation’s founding, has endured through prosperity and hardship, through natural disaster and national trial. It endures still, carried forward by the will, perseverance, and hard work of generation after generation.
“That endurance is not abstract,” adds Salazar. “Today, more than 170 million Americans make up the nation’s labor force, their skills and effort powering the largest economy on earth, one that accounts for roughly a quarter of all global output. Behind those figures stands a simpler truth: the strength of the United States has always been the breadth of its people and the many gifts they bring. The tapestry is the achievement,” he states.
For the SER Network of Affiliates, that conviction is the work itself. For decades, they have served communities across the United States and Puerto Rico. Every year, more than 1 million program participants are assisted in building their skills, credentials, and confidence to enter the workforce and rise within it. Workforce development is, at its heart, the everyday renewal of the American promise: that with opportunity and effort, anyone can contribute to, and share in, the prosperity of a nation built by many hands.
“America’s next chapter will be written the same way the first 250 years were — by people who develop their talents, lift their neighbors, and refuse to be divided,” he said. “Our charge is to ensure that every person has the opportunity to contribute their full measure. When we do that, the promise of this country is not merely preserved. It grows.”
SER National invites Americans of every community to mark the moment in a spirit of unity and gratitude — to salute one another as neighbors and friends, to give thanks to our Creator for the blessings of this land, and to recognize how rare and significant this milestone truly is. Few will witness such a moment in a lifetime. This generation will see it firsthand.
by SER National | Jun 17, 2026 | News & Updates
AND THE ENDURING LINK BETWEEN FREEDOM AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO EARN, LEARN, AND BUILD
IRVING, Texas — SER National joins Americans across the country in observing Juneteenth, the federal holiday marking June 19, 1865, the day Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced that all remaining enslaved people were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation and only when word at last reached the final community to learn of its liberty.
“Juneteenth reminds us that freedom and opportunity belong together,” said Ignacio Salazar, SER National’s President and CEO. “Emancipation opened the door, but it was the chance to work, to learn a skill, and to earn a living that allowed people to walk through it and build something lasting. At SER, we honor that history every day by helping Americans gain the skills and the confidence to seize the opportunities in front of them.”
This year’s national observance, themed “Juneteenth Brings Balance to America’s Celebration of Freedom,” speaks directly to that truth: liberty and the opportunity to contribute are partners, and the nation is at its strongest when both are within every person’s reach.
“When a person gains a skill, earns a credential, or steps into a career suited to their talents, something larger than a paycheck takes hold,” says Salazar. “It is a sense of dignity, purpose, and self-determination. Freedom, in its fullest sense, is the room to become one’s greatest self, and a nation that equips its people to do exactly that grows stronger with every individual who rises.
“Our work is about making sure no one is left on the sidelines of a growing economy,” Salazar added. “This Juneteenth, I invite Americans of every background to come together, to honor how far we have come as a nation, and to recommit to an America where freedom and opportunity reach every person willing to learn, work, and contribute,” Salazar said.
by SER National | May 24, 2026 | News & Updates
AND THE AMERICANS WHOSE SACRIFICE BUILT THE NATION WE CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN
A Tribute to the Fallen and to the Enduring American Belief That Every Generation Has a Role to Play in Building a Stronger Country
IRVING, Texas — SER National joins communities across the United States and Puerto Rico in observing Memorial Day, a solemn national day of remembrance for the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who gave their lives in service to the country.
“Memorial Day calls on all of us to pause and honor the Americans who gave their lives so that the rest of us could pursue ours,” said Ignacio Salazar, President and Chief Executive Officer of SER National. “The most meaningful way we can honor that sacrifice is by doing the work of building a stronger country by helping every American develop the talents they were given and by working together as one people toward a shared future,” he added.
Memorial Day dates back to 1868, when Gen. John A. Logan, then Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued General Order No. 11, designating May 30 as a national day to honor those who died in the Civil War. The first major observance that year took place at Arlington National Cemetery, where some 5,000 Americans gathered to decorate more than 20,000 soldiers’ graves. After the First World War, the observance was expanded to honor all American service members who had died in defense of the nation. In 1971, Congress formally established Memorial Day as a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May.
The freedoms preserved by their sacrifice are the same freedoms that allow Americans to learn, work, build businesses, raise families, and contribute their talents to the strength of the nation. That is the inheritance every generation receives, and the inheritance every generation is asked to steward.
This Memorial Day, SER National invites every American to take a moment of reflection — to visit a national cemetery, to attend a local ceremony, to place a flag, to read the name of a fallen service member aloud — and then to recommit to the work of strengthening the country they died for. The development of the individual’s talents, the dignity of work, and the power of Americans working together remain the surest tribute we can offer..
