SPEL storytellers start the spring 2025 session!

After another lengthy and chilly winter, Hola Cultura’s interns begin the Storytelling Program for Experiential Learning’s (SPEL) spring semester!

The 2025 spring session sees two dozen interns and fellows in Washington, D.C., and beyond coming together each week to develop journalism, communication and professional skills. The program provides participants with rapid training sessions on subjects ranging from journalistic ethics to copy editing. 

For interns like Consuelo Ramirez, an editorial intern studying mass communications with a concentration in journalism at Delaware State University, the opportunity to write about the Latine and Latin American communities drove her to join this semester’s SPEL cohort. She says writing about the broader community pushes her to expand what she typically writes about.

“I wanted to be a part of an organization that writes stories about the Hispanic community, especially because I am a huge advocate for the Hispanic community,” she says. “I’ve been used to writing campus news, but I wanted to grow bigger than that. I thought this would be a great opportunity.”

Ramirez is on the Society & Culture team, which focuses on explanatory and investigative stories about the Latine community. This semester, SPEL also continues its Arts & Humanities team, which covers artists and other creatives based in Washington. SPEL’s Copy Editing team trains interns to become professional copy editors, and on the Social Media team, interns lead the social media promotion of SPEL-produced stories. 

Ramirez has already published her first story with SPEL this semester, a review of the film “Emilia Pérez” that analyzes its various controversies. She is currently working on her next piece, which centers around undocumented college students, with and without support from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, as they navigate life after graduation.

The DACA program has nearly 538,000 recipients as of September 30, 2023, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The program was established to protect eligible young people brought to the United States as children from being deported and allows them to obtain work permits that must be renewed periodically.

Amy Arias, a dual enrollment student at District of Columbia International School and Northern Virginia Community College, had never done journalism-related work before joining the SPEL program. She said she was intrigued by how the program lets her step out of her comfort zone and the freedom she’d have in creating a project.

“In past projects, I’ve worked with the Smithsonian Institution, Mobilize Green, the University of Maryland; those internships I’ve done, they wouldn’t give me that much freedom to do things my way,” she says. “It’s the freedom inside this program” that she likes.

Arias is researching profiles on three artists, two based in Washington and one from Baltimore. She says one of her favorite aspects of the program thus far is the community and mentorship available as she continues developing her piece and journalistic skills. 

“SPEL requires a lot if you are new to these things,” she says. “The team, since they’ve had more experience than me, telling me how to do certain things or how to navigate it better, that’s something that I love about SPEL. We have support inside the team.” 

The program runs year-round over three semesters. This spring, the group will meet every Tuesday until April 30. Recruitment just opened for the summer semester starting May 27. Find out more and apply here.

Hola Cultura is excited about the stories this semester’s hard-working and passionate interns will create. Stay on the lookout for their work, published each Tuesday.

– Story by Francisco Rodriguez

– Copy edited by Kami Waller