Nina Escriva Fernandez

Nina Escriva Fernandez—2015 Fellow

Year: Class of 2017
Major: Latin American Studies / Economics
Casa de Esperanza

My partner organization Casa de Esperanza is a national domestic violence organization working in the Latin@ community. My previous experience of volunteering as a community assistant at their organization is what sparked my interest in doing the fellowship with them as well. The ten weeks of the fellowship however, were spent at the youth branch of Casa de Esperanza, which is mainly prevention work and focuses on topics such as healthy and unhealthy relationships, identity and leadership for Latin@ youth. I assisted the youth initiative specialist with the preparation of the workshops for the youth groups in Richfield, Saint Paul and Carver, and co-facilitated these.Through my individual project, I created a health component to be added to the curriculum, focusing both on physical and mental health. These workshops will be carried out in the Fall of 2015, with which I will assist.

During the ten weeks spent at Casa de Esperanza, I learned a great deal about non-profits and the challenges that come with the work. In addition I got to know great people (both adults and youth) with very interesting and powerful personal stories. The leadership development curriculum has a substantial impact on the youth, as expressed by themselves, and it was great to have seen them develop throughout the past ten weeks.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of the Chuck Green Fellowship and for the chance to work with and learn from an organization such as Casa de Esperanza. I am looking forward to continuing working with the youth groups during the school year.