Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and moved to the United States in 2016. I arrived in New York City and eventually made my way down South to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Where do you attend school? What you are majoring in and what are your academic interests?
I started attending Brandeis University in 2018 through the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program (TYP). Brandeis is a small liberal arts university located in Waltham, Massachusetts. I am pursuing a double major in Psychology and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, with a minor in Creative Writing. At Brandeis I have been able to explore many of my interests which include research in the social sciences, interactive media and performance, and social justice and activism.
What are your career goals?
I am very open to discovering what I want to dedicate my professional life to as I navigate the workforce and collect experiences that shape who I am. I have yet to decide what my future will look like, but if I have one goal is to live a life of service. I want my work to be instrumental in the betterment of lives and to make an impact. This can be through an endless number of things, so I am keeping all of my options on the table.
Outside of school and work what are your hobbies and/or interests?
Doing things that develop my creativity brings me great joy. Because of that I am constantly reading or writing. I also have a lot of love for performance arts, and have been lucky to be a part of several theater productions at Brandeis. I enjoy working with digital media as well, and have a technical degree in Graphic Arts, which helped me develop an interest and love for photography and video editing.
Outside of this, I love traveling, seeing new places near or far and getting to know new people. Learning about other cultures as well as sharing my own is one of my biggest passions and something I pursue constantly.
What is your internship project focus? Who is your mentor at the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation?
For this associateship I will be working with the Designing the Parks team at the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation as a Cultural Landscape Preservation Digital Media Resource Assistant. Together with my mentor Jennifer Hanna and other team members from different areas I will be working on what we call Profiles. My goal is to take information previously written about the park, its history and its more underrepresented stories, and transport it to an online platform in order to make these stories and this information more accessible to the general public and visitors who wish to learn more about the park.
Why did you choose to participate in a Designing the Parks Internship? How is your internship hosted?
I believe it will be a great opportunity for me to become familiar with areas I have yet to explore while developing skills that I already have such as writing, public speaking, working with a team, etc. My internship is hosted by the Latino Heritage Internship Program (LHIP).
What are you looking forward to learning or exploring during your internship?
I have not worked with cultural preservation before so I am excited to learn about what this means and what it entails. I am also excited to meet new people and different fields and explore the different areas of the Center working hard to keep all this important history fresh in our memory.
What types of opportunities will Designing the Parks provide you with?
This opportunity will allow me to explore new tools and new elements that I have not worked with in the past. It will also be instrumental in introducing me to new people in multiple areas which is incredibly important as one enters the workforce upon graduation.
Designing the Parks 