The Latin American Association was established in 1972 with the mission to help Latino families achieve their aspirations for their academic, social and economic advancement. This is accomplished through direct programs and integrated community partnerships that focus on youth academic achievement, education and prevention and services to families with urgent needs. Vicky Herbener ’14 helped the association to fulfill those goals.

Vicky, an international studies major, interned with the Latin American Association because of her interest in helping immigrants to make a better life. During summer 2014, she taught English classes and assisted the program director with creating lesson plans. Her other duties included helping with marketing and fundraising. Vicky’s favorite part of her internship was seeing the results — the satisfaction of the people who needed help and received it.

An LAA internship requires skills in writing, translating and the ability to interact effectively with different types of people. Vicky felt she was prepared thanks to her Oglethorpe education. “It’s important to translate a phrase into Spanish with the same meaning, she said, ” and because I translated so much at Oglethorpe, I felt prepared.”

Vicky advises students who are applying for internships not to be afraid to apply for the ones you want, even those that may seem out of reach. “Don’t worry about if you have enough experience for it or not,” Vicky says. “Apply anyway, because you never know unless you try.”