My time as a graduate student at IU in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese had a profound impact on me personally, professionally, and academically. The M.A. program was academically challenging and taught me how to prioritize different aspects of academics, work, and my personal life. It also provided an opportunity to foster deep friendships and collaborate on projects with professors and other graduate students in my program. In between the M.A. and Ph.D. program I participated in the graduate exchange program with La Universidad de Sevilla in Seville, Spain. My husband, Sam, and I moved to Spain for one year. That year in Spain between the M.A. and Ph.D. was a wonderful teaching opportunity, a time to focus on some personal research projects, and a time for rest and an opportunity to meet some wonderful friends and colleagues at the university there. During my M.A. and Ph.D. at IU, the professors and entire department of Spanish and Portuguese served as wonderful mentors - equipping me with useful skills and providing a supportive community. During the Ph.D. program I was able to work as a research assistant in our department as well as work with two different professors from the Literature Department as an assistant for the Professionalization Workshop Series. The diversity of the graduate students, professors, and opportunities in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese allowed me to cultivate professional skills that have served me both inside and outside of academia. During my last year of the Ph.D. program I taught Spanish as a Future Faculty Teaching Fellow at Butler University, finished my Ph.D., and my husband and I had our first child, Ruben.

I am currently working as the Director of the Wabash County Diversity Coalition. Prior to beginning my work as Director, I was contracted by Imagine One85 in Wabash County to carry out a Needs Analysis about the diversity needs in Wabash County in order to justify the creation of a position and fiscal sponsorship for the Wabash County Diversity Coalition. My time as a graduate student at IU gave me the tools, knowledge, and project management skills to tackle the needs analysis and present it to the Diversity Coalition and Community Foundation of Wabash County. That needs analysis partially resulted in the creation of my position as the Director of the Wabash County Diversity Coalition. The mission of the Wabash County Diversity Coalition is to inspire a safe and nurturing environment by building relationships, education, and celebrating the uniqueness of every person. In my work I lead the Diversity Coalition agenda, fundraise for our organization, I plan a Hispanic Heritage Festival for our county, I provide daily outreach support and connect nonnative English speakers to resources in the county to help them thrive, I provide bilingual news in English and Spanish for our county, I facilitate Multicultural Awareness trainings for businesses, as well as a wide range of other tasks. Recently, I have started to work with two graduate students from IU and a small university on another needs analysis to potentially create a Spanish Certificate program in our area, and I was also asked to join the North Manchester Public Library Board of Trustees.

When I began at IU, I did not anticipate that I would be the Director of the Wabash County Diversity Coalition or serve as a board member to the public library after graduation. My office is in the Multicultural Center at Manchester University and this work has provided me with an opportunity to use my degree to improve my community and work adjacently to academia. I am grateful to Professors Laura Gurzynski-Weiss, Erik Willis, Kim Geeslin, Manuel Díaz-Campos, César Félix-Brasdefer, Anke Birkenmeier, and Kathleen Myers for their academic, personal, and professional mentorship during my time at IU. I hope that I am able to provide the same inspiration, support, and positive impact for the next generation of scholars, students, and community members that my professors and peers at IU provided for me.