Los Kitos Entertainment and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) launch the Educomics Engineering, a series of six educational resources for the Hispanic community

Los Angeles, CA, May 9, 2006---Los Kitos Entertainment, LLC and The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) as a joined effort proudly launched and distributed for the first time The Educomics Engineering at the SHPE National Technical and Career Conference celebrated in the beginning of January of this year in Florida. A series of the Educomics will be published and launched every two months throughout the year featuring different educational topics. Los Kitos has worked on topics such as Nuclear Engineering, Biomedical engineering and is currently working on one focus on Aerospace Engineering.

The Educomics Engineering is a bilingual (English – Spanish) educational tool presented as entertaining cartoon strip characters Los Kitos. It was created as a cornerstone to support Spanish Speaking parents in both being better advocates for their children's education, and to encourage their kids to pursue an exciting career in the Engineering field.

“The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineering in an effort to encourage Latino students to pursue science, technology, engineering and math fields partner with Los Kitos to publish the Educomics book. We hope to spark the interest of our youth by bringing engineering in an educational and entertaining media” said Diana L. Gomez, Electrical Engineer and SHPE National President.

Based on a survey conducted in 2003 by the ASEE (American Society of Engineering Education), the Hispanic population continues to lag in engineering education, statistics indicated that only 5.4% have a bachelors degree, a 4.3% have a masters degree and a 3.6% posses a Ph.D. Consequently, the challenge for parents, educators, and community leaders is to encourage and engage Hispanic youth in the full spectrum of their education to create a new diverse generation of critical thinkers that will infuse the U.S. workforce.

Rafaela Schwan, SHPE AHETEMS Director of Programs at The University of Texas at Arlington added “We hope not only to encourage students to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields, but also use the Edu-comic book as a literacy tool. We hope our Latino youth will read the Edu-comic book with their parents and/or siblings.”

The Educomics Engineering initiative pursues a wide distribution throughout the country as a combined effort between Los Kitos and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) through their events and community oriented activities. These two entities are totally commitment to the wellbeing of their communities, and one of their missions is to increase support through education among parents and their families for a better and secure future.

About Los Kitos

Los Kitos Entertainment is a creative licensing and multimedia enterprise built around the bilingual, cartoon strip character of Los Kitos. As a result of the brand recognition, Los Kitos has developed licensing relationships with companies including Bank of America, State Farm Insurance, CHF Industries, among many others. All these companies utilize the characters as their vehicle to promote the sale of their product or service to the Hispanic and mainstream populations. For more information please visit www.loskitos.com.

About the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)

The Society of Hispanic professional Engineers (SHPE) was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1974 by a group of engineers employed by the city of Los Angeles. Their initial objective was to form a national organization of professional engineers to serve as role model in the Hispanic community. Today, SHPE enjoys a strong but independent network of professional and student chapters throughout the nation. For more information please visit www.shpe.org.