Student Spotlight: Vicky Pavlou

Click here to find out more about Chile's English Open Doors Program
Chile is a beautiful, wonderful country. Would you like to live and work there after graduation?
by Ann Abbott

 Just a quick, quick note to say that I was delighted when Vicky Pavlou sent me an email yesterday telling me that she had been accepted into Chile's "English Open Doors" program. Hurray!

Here are a few words from Vicky:
"And if you have other students that are looking into something similar this program is nice because even though you are a "volunteer" they provide health care, housing, meals (you can chose to be with a host family) and a $100 stipend per month. So it is not like other programs were you pay a high fee for them to place you."
In addition to all the other ways that Vicky is a perfect candidate, I believe that her hands-on work within our Spanish-speaking community during "Spanish in the Community" and "Spanish & Entrepreneurship" makes her stand out from among the crowd of applicants.

And as a follow-up to the wonderful networking project that my Business Spanish students did this semester, I'd also like to state that Vicky has used LinkedIn to connect with a another former student of mine who did this program in 2006. That's the way networking should work!

Take note, students:
  • Make a good impression on your professors so that they can write great letters of recommendation for you.
  • Take classes with an experiential component--even if they are "just" an elective--so that someone can speak to your professional skills, not just your academic ones.
  • Looks for international opportunities--and take them! There will never be a better time for you to live and work abroad than right now, right out of college. And that experience will lead you to opportunities you cannot even imagine right now.
  • Network, network, network. If someone had the same professor as you, took the same classes as you, went to the same university as you, those are all ways to phrase your introductory sentence/paragraph so that you can find common ground. Once that common ground is established, it's more likely that the other person will respond favorably.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vocabulary for Parent-Teacher Conferences

Image
I'm very happy that so many students responded to our community partner's need for help. Our students' language skills will help Central High School's Latino parents better communicate with the teachers during the parent-teacher conferences next week. Central's secretary will contact the students directly to schedule times with them. Here is some vocabulary help for students. Materias. School subjects are "materias" NOT "sujetos." You should remember subjects from your intro Spanish courses, but here are some reminders: historia, matemáticas, inglés, física, química, biología, educación física, etc. General vocabulary. Notas = grades; aprobar = to pass; suspender = to fail; conducta, comportamiento = behavior. Topics. Ms. Citraro offers the following advice: "The topics and vocabulary that would come up are about the subjects at school. For example: no ha entregado las tareas tiene que tomar el examen otra vez habla mucho en clase falta muc
Read more

How to Correctly File Hispanic Names

Image
I know that community-based learning students don't like it when they are asked to file during their time in the community. However, their learning goals are to improve their Spanish and knowledge of Latino cultures. Filing information on clients with Hispanic names helps them with both. And imagine the impact of mis-filing for the organizations where our students work and and their clients. That's why I was unhappy to learn that many SPAN 232 students did not do well on their exam section asking them to put some Hispanic names in alphabetical order. I can imagine that some students feel that putting names into alphabetical order isn't important. It is! It is especially important in the organizations where they work because they are dealing with clients who may not have "accommodated" to the American system of using only one last name. And it is especially important for clients whose papers are so important for their legal status, medical information and oth
Read more

Interview with Jessica Horn of ACCIÓN Chicago

Image
By Carolyn Kloecker , Span 232 student This past week I completed an assignment for my Business Communications class (SPCM 211) which was to interview someone in a field that I am interested in working for in the future. I asked her many questions about the organization, and lots of information can be found on their website www.accionchicago.org . This organization is a Community Partner with Spanish & Illinois, and has an extensive connection with the Spanish-speaking community in the Chicagoland area. Here are a few of the questions and answers from Jessica: Is ACCIÓN a fairly new organization? How did it begin? ACCIÓN Chicago started in 1994, but the parent organization, ACCIÓN was started in 1961. It is the largest micro-lending organization, and it began in Venezuela, and took root in the U.S. in 1991. How do loan officers communicate with clients? Mostly by phone, as people call in to the office to get a loan for their small business. The website is also a main form o
Read more