SPEL interns wrap up another semester of community arts and storytelling
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“Bye!” “¡Adiós!!” “¡Nos vemos!” “¡Que les vaya bien!” “¡Ciao!” This is how Hola Cultura’s summer SPEL program came to an end on July 30 as SPEL interns and fellows signed off from their last Zoom meeting. Lively goodbyes have become a fun tradition for ending weekly workshop meetings, a time when everyone would unmute their mics and create some high-spirited noise in the Zoom room. It was a fitting way to say goodbye to the semester.
SPEL, or the Storytelling Program for Experiential Learning (el Programa de Narración para Aprendizaje Experiencial), brings together learners from all backgrounds, facilitating members’ creative writing processes. Through weekly workshops, high school and college students and young professionals connect as they develop communication and leadership skills. SPEL members also receive professional development opportunities, such as learning how to research story ideas and conduct interviews, as well as networking opportunities with guest speakers from a variety of communication fields.
This summer’s guest speakers included Xavier Lopez, producer for NPR’s Code Switch podcast; Mitch Ryals, managing editor of the Washington City Paper; Ofelia Montelongo Valencia, professional writer and University of Maryland instructor and Melissa Pérez-Carrillo, a former SPEL intern who today is a reporter for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida. This was an exciting experience for interns and fellows as they learned and asked career-related questions.
This semester’s program included 14 interns. Editorial interns were divided into two teams led by two fellows each: the Arts & Humanities team and the Society & Culture team. The SPEL program also has a Copy Editing team of interns led by a fellow. They copy edit the stories the other teams produce.
This summer the Arts & Humanities team interviewed a number of artists and other creatives from La Gozadera, an organization that produces Latin dance events in the DMV with the aim of bringing people together “through the universal language of dance,” to Doa Oa, a botanical mural artist whose work aims to heighten the visibility of nature’s beauty and champion its restoration. Hola Cultura’s professional staff is now preparing those stories for publication.
This summer’s Society & Culture team, meanwhile, focused on an investigative project that built on our previous climate justice reporting and helped produce a new season of our podcast “The Climate Divide,” which launched on Aug. 7.
Tricia De Souza is among the interns who just completed her first semester as a SPEL editorial intern. She is a 25-year-old Brazilian American who lives in D.C.’s Cathedral Heights neighborhood. She was drawn to the program through her passion for writing and interest in building journalism and communication skills.
“I think one of the biggest reasons why I joined the SPEL program was just the ability to spend quality time working on my writing and really honing that craft,” says Tricia.
Being new to the DMV, Tricia says SPEL also served as a connector to the professional and artistic communities the area has to offer and allowed her to learn about concerts, art exhibits and other events celebrating Latine culture. She says she appreciated the structured way fellows led the interns while also allowing room for creative freedom. She became familiar with the story production process of brainstorming a topic, formulating and conducting interviews, writing and finally editing. Each step is crucial, Tricia says.
She adds that she enjoyed the experience, saying it has “given [me] this amazing ability to work with an established organization while also having the creativity to really think about what I care about, the topics I’m really invested in and how I want to write about them.”
With an abundance of artistic and musical events in the DMV, interns also had the opportunity to try out different positions, including art reviewer and social media maker. In addition to her upcoming story on EducArte, a Maryland-based nonprofit that celebrates Brazilian music and culture in the DMV, Tricia and I teamed up to review the Gilsons concert at the Black Cat in July, which was hosted by EducArte.
“It was everything that I could have asked and more,” says Tricia on the experience of reviewing the concert for Hola Cultura. “We both had the opportunity to go to the event and feel the ambiance of the concert, but then [we] also met the singers, the musicians. That was absolutely incredible. I never had the opportunity before to…look into the life of a musician prior to them performing on stage.”
Tricia also shared some advice for future SPEL members.
“Just take advantage of anything that comes your way,” offers Tricia. “Especially when you’re beginning, there’s a power to saying ‘yes’ to opportunities and being open to anything that comes your way. With SPEL — because there is a level of creative entrepreneurship and individuality when it comes to the process — you really have to take charge and dive in. There are a lot of mentors who can help you along your way and establish those relationships. You never know where that can lead.”
SPEL is currently recruiting for the fall semester, which takes place from Sept. 17 to Dec. 3, 2024. The SPEL program is an amazing opportunity to not only gain digital fluency, writing skills and professional experience but also make connections with fellow creators and produce captivating articles, videos and cultural content. Apply to SPEL today!
– Story by Olivia Olson
– Copy edited by Michelle Benitez
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