We have new summer interns! Meet Rafael and Gloria. Both began with us in June and will be with us through August. Welcome to the E@W team!
Rafael Mendez, Summer Student Support Intern
Rafael is originally from New Braunfels, TX and studied U.S. History and Education at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. After graduating in 2008, he followed his passion for food and began working in professional kitchens in Denver and Winter Park, Colorado and then returned to Austin in 2010. Having worked with many immigrants in the service industry, he has seen the challenges that limited English can present, both in and out of the workplace.
Rafael is excited to be interning with ENGLISH @ WORK as he wants to become more involved in the immigrant community, wants to help immigrants overcome language challenges, and wants to improve his own Spanish skills. He feels that this experience will be invaluable as he prepares to apply to law school in the fall of 2012.
Gloria San Miguel, Summer Marketing Intern
Gloria is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico and is spending the summer in Austin, TX interning for both Con Mi Madre and ENGLISH @ WORK. She is in her final year at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazon in San Juan and is majoring in Marketing with a minor in Finance. After graduation, she hopes to make a permanent move to Austin to pursue her MBA at UT’s McCombs School of Business. In her free time, she loves going to the beach, cooking, reading, doing yoga, and spending time with her family and friends.
She was drawn to the work ENGLISH @ WORK does from both her family’s immigrant experience and her own personal experience in growing up in a bilingual environment. Her maternal grandfather is originally from Spain and immigrated to Cuba and then eventually to Puerto Rico and along the way he taught himself English knowing that it would bring him increased opportunities for prosperity. This sentiment was also shared by her father who instilled in the family that being bilingual in English could only ever help them.
As for goals for her internship, she says she hopes to help ENGLISH @ WORK get the recognition it deserves by helping us create focused marketing materials, gather more precise data, and conduct more direct outreach.