"¡Sí se puede!" said actress and Voto Latino Co-Founder and Chairwoman Rosario Dawson as she addressed a sea of driven and high-spirited Latinos (and some non-Latinos) during the Voto Latino Power Summit kickoff on April 11 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

The crowd eagerly looked on, craving inspiration during a time when change for Latinos is within reach, but still too far to fully grasp without the help of the powers that be who need to sign the dotted line to implement real, concrete change.

Dawson was fresh off of a flight from Ghana, where she is launching a clothing line to help local designers in Accra, through her creative projects with Abrima Erwiah's Studio One Eighty Nine and her clothing line, Fashion Rising, "that directly employs Africans and trains them through pop-up fashion schools." Despite having traveled thousands of miles, she was glowing; she was full of life, and her energy was contagious.

While addressing the crowd, an older, Caucasian male, who was also a Voto Latino volunteer, caught my attention. Moved by Dawson's words, he yelled "right on!" proving that, while the driving force behind the Voto Latino movement may derive heavily from Latino Millennials, it's also inter-generational, colorblind and extremely powerful.

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When Dawson wasn't wowing audiences on the big screen in "Rent," Quentin Tarantino's  "Grindhouse," Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Frank Miller's "Sin City,"  or Diego Luna's "Cesar Chavez" (where she played United Farm Workers' co-founder Dolores Huerta), she was on a mission to empower young Latinos as the future leaders of America.

Voto Latino, a nonpartisan organization which empowers Latinos to vote, voice their opinions, and fight for their rights to education, healthcare and immigration reform, etc., is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with the Voto Latino Power Summit 2014 that will expand to a four-city national tour. Latino Millennials will participate in leadership, advocacy, and media and technology workshops with community activists, grassroots organizers, elected officials, celebrities, and business leaders. They can also participate in the VL Innovators Challenge, the organization's tech competition where Latino Millennials can design and use technology for change.

Still in awe of how far Voto Latino has progressed with the help of fellow trailblazer and Voto Latino President and CEO, María Teresa Kumar, Dawson realizes that at the same time there is so much more to do to implement change.

She recalled a conversation that she had with longtime friend and fellow actor Wilmer Valderrama  (who is also the Artist Coalition Co-Chair for Voto Latino) during the inception of Voto Latino. The two discussed the best ways to get Latino Millennials engaged, which was to speak to them in English and reach them online, where they had and continue to have a strong presence.

"We needed to encourage them to be the voice of their generation, and now we are seeing statistics and the numbers really showing and proving that," she said. "Millennials are 77 million strong and that is very important because baby boomers are 78 million -- and you know what an affect that has had on our community and country and our world."

What are some of the obstacles that Latino Millennials face and what moves them towards change?

"This is a community that is the most diverse that we have ever seen where almost 20 percent of them are Latino. They over-index online; they are very excited; they are very interested, and they understand that they are inheriting trillion dollars of debt, that they are drowning in underwater student loans. They are living at home with their parents. They are pushing off getting married; they are pushing off having children. They are trying to figure out what their next steps are," Dawson added.

"They are very interesting because they are not interested in doing like their parents did. They really want to change the name of the game. Two-thirds of them support same-sex marriage, they support medical marijuana," which she says she can't believe that it's passing in parts of the country.

"That shows that there are some really big, bold changes ahead of us and that there's an Electorate behind it to make those changes. People who are ready write their names down in history, who understand that the people before them have given them an opportunity that they can take so far, and it's not just in a Latina, first black president, that is the least of their gains, I can assure you. They are going to claim 'Sí se Puede' for themselves -- and that's very exciting."

Dawson is is also "very interested" to see how this demographic is really going to spread its wings.

When getting people involved in the movement and knocking on doors, Dawson points out how crucial it is not to put people in a box and make them choose a side. To her, what's amazing about Latino Millennials is that they are not "party-loyal," Dawson points out, "which is one of the reasons that Voto Latino is nonpartisan."

"This is a demographic that isn't interested in being put into a box, if anything they are more interested in being put in a circle. They are rounding it out, they are rounding the conversation out -- and it's a beautiful thing to be a part of," she said.

The beautiful actress admits that she is on the "cusp" of being a Millennial (the demographic includes people born in 1980 and earlier, or 18-34 years old) and jokes that she's proud to be a '79 baby.

Regardless of whatever generation you come from, it's the issues at hand that really matter, and Dawson sees the big picture.

"It's been remarkable thing being on this journey, seeing how it's grown, knowing that if you build it they will come, and here you are," she said. "Thank you so much for that because we have a lot further to go. We really need inter-generational conversation to be a part of that. We need to guide our young people and we need to listen to them."

Dawson referred to the week-long, intensive, annual art festival, Burning Man, which she loyally attends, saying that to be involved, you have to be fully dedicated. "It's radical inclusivity, you have got to be in it to win it."