Community Fellows Blog Posts

One of the main reasons that I wanted to join the Community Fellows program was to further prepare for my future professional life. I knew that this fellowship would provide me the opportunity to work in a non-profit setting, and would balance out the experience I had interning with a corporate job this past summer. My time at the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley (HFSV), has brought me new challenges and experiences that I believe will prepare me for my professional life after I graduate, and for that I am extremely thankful to my co-workers and the Leavey School of Business for giving me this opportunity.

When beginning at HFSV, I did not expect my own personal opinions and insight to be asked for or valued right off the beginning. In my summer internship, there was little time for me to speak up or offer my opinions, which I expected due to the type of work. When working on research for my supervisor at HFSV, she would ask me what I thought about a program, a location, or what ideas I had to add, and I would at times have nothing to offer. I thought that my sole job was to just provide research and allow my superiors to figure it out. It was then that my supervisor told me that I am a valuable member of the workplace, and that I should be developing my own ideas, opinions, and recommendations for the good of the Foundation. I really appreciated hearing this and at this moment realized that as long as I apply myself to a situation, I can have something to offer. This was definitely a valuable experience for me because being able to confidently voice your opinions and offer input should be something that all professionals aim to work for.

After this learning experience, I applied it to working on my own to find programs and opportunities for HFSV to serve more Latinos in the Silicon Valley. I researched and reached out to different programs and individuals that I thought would be a good fit or partnership for our organization. At the moment, I am currently in contact with a program that would allow us to help our DACA students achieve professional development skills when graduating college. I am very excited about this opportunity as it is my goal to leave my internship with implementing a program or partnership that would be used for years to come. This whole process has been extremely rewarding and I believe it has allowed me to grow as an independent individual and use my personal skills and qualities to reach out to strangers and develop business relationships that may have not ever existed. There are so many opportunities out there for growth and development among similar programs and organizations.

As I near my final quarter at Santa Clara and with my fellowship at HFSV, I think I need to take the time to sit back and look at the growth that I’ve had since the beginning of the year. It has all gone by so fast but I do believe I have learned a great deal. I’m going to take the quarter to evaluate my progress and present it to all of my staff and offer my opinions on various aspects of HFSV. This is another opportunity to use my own personal judgment and present it to my co-workers and I am excited about that. There are also several HFSV programs that are approaching that will allow me to develop more professional relationships and I hope to continue them after I graduate. I believe that this final quarter will be a positive and fulfilling culmination of my time at HFSV, and leave me as prepared as I could be for my corporate job this upcoming summer.