A new semester of SPEL!
By hola | Published | No Comments
A new year marks the start of another semester at SPEL, bringing together fresh faces and returning interns from across the country. The spring semester officially began on Feb. 3, kicking off 13 weeks of empowering content created by the next generation of storytellers. Prepare yourself for a semester full of immersive reporting and storytelling.
SPEL is Hola Cultura’s experiential learning program for high school and college students who want to embrace their creative side. Throughout the semester, interns write stories, practice writing skills and strengthen their reporting. They are already off to a strong start, with the most recent stories highlighting Baltimore artist Jainson Cedillo, Boston muralist Felipe Ortiz and Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl blowout.
The program is organized into teams, each with a different focus and led by a fellow: arts and humanities, society and culture, oral history, social media and copy editing. Every Tuesday, interns and fellows meet on Zoom to collaborate and create a space that encourages positivity and an appreciation for storytelling and Latine culture.
Francisco Rodriguez, the Society and Culture fellow who started as an intern, has been with Hola Cultura since January 2025 and uses journalism to connect with his community and Salvadoran culture.
“I found out about the SPEL program and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do some local journalism covering the Latin American community in the greater D.C. region,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez is originally from Silver Spring, Md., and recently graduated from American University in Washington, D.C., with a double major in journalism and literature. Since then, he has written several stories for Hola Cultura. Rodriguez was also part of the Hola Cultura team that reported on the newest environmental justice series that was co-published with the Washington City Paper last year. Now, as a fellow, he looks forward to the different types of stories that his interns report on.
“I’m excited to see how my interns’ stories pan out and come together. It’s a fun process. It can be arduous while you’re in it, but once you’re done, you can pat yourself on the back because it’s good work from the interns and everyone else involved in the editing process,” Rodriguez said.
Maya Kumar is a first-semester intern and a sophomore in high school from Washington, D.C. She found out about SPEL through the school newsletter.
“I love to write and learn about different cultures and thought this would be a great experience for me,” Kumar said.
She is an editorial intern who hopes to write about the cultural preservation of indigenous communities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. She values SPEL for the creative freedom and encouragement to develop and shape her own stories.
“It allows you to be creative and express yourself. I think it creates some of the best writing when you get to come up with your own topics and ideas,” Kumar said.
The SPEL team is starting to work on several projects. One of them is the oral history team’s story on COVID-19’s impact throughout East Boston, which will include perspectives from residents and organizations such as Mutual Aid Eastie, East Boston Social Centers and other local organizations.
There will be much to read, and we hope our storytelling resonates with you and sparks a creative expression of your own.
— Story by Melody Marichalar
– Copy edited by Valerie Izquierdo and Kami Waller
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