When you drive to Global Volunteers' home office in Minnesota, you get a "mini tour" of my hometown, Little Canada. My grade school is right across the street from the office on 375 Little Canada Rd, and I remember walking across the street to listen to stories that the nuns would read to us in the building that is now Global Volunteers headquarters. Since I did not anticipate becoming a nun, I never anticipated that I would now be coming to work here every day!

My family is very close even now that we are all grown up. We all live within a 15-minute drive from each other. This makes it very easy for my two older brothers, my younger sister and I to gather at my parents' house for holidays and to watch the Vikings play. My husband, Salvador Crespo and I live in Little Canada, a first-ring northern suburb of St. Paul. I try to walk or ride my bike to work when weather permits. My husband is from Mexico, so we like to travel there to visit, especially when the Minnesota winters get a little too cold. I have always enjoyed school and "life" learning of all sorts. I graduated with a double major in International Relations with an emphasis in development and Spanish and minors in Latin American Studies and Foreign Studies from the University of Minnesota. During my time at the university, I took advantage of every opportunity I could to travel. This included a year in the Dominican Republic where I studied at the University and taught English at several language schools. I also did studies in Brazil, Mexico, Haiti, New York and Miami. One summer, I did research traveling throughout central Mexico creating a "How To" guide for other students looking to do language studies in Mexico. At the same time, I wrote an 80-page research paper titled "Culture Shock: a Mexican Case study," for which I interviewed many students experiencing different stages of culture shock. In between work, travel and classes I spent a lot of time volunteering as an English as a Second Language tutor throughout the Twin Cities. While I was living in the Dominican Republic I received my English Teaching Certificate through the Centro Cultural Dominico-Americano and taught several classes.

Once I graduated, I started my job search looking for an organization I believed in. I found out about an internship at Global Volunteers, and several months later was offered a full-time position which I gladly accepted. -I worked at Global Volunteers for two years -- after which I moved to Mexico to marry my husband in his home country. We lived there for about two years and tried our luck at being restaurant owners. I also taught English to children and adults to supplement our income. Unfortunately, like many new businesses, ours did not last and we needed to close down. After living on the US-Mexico border for a while we decided to move back to Minnesota. Upon return, I noticed that there was a position at Global Volunteers open and decided to come back. Since 2001, I've worked as a Program Coordinator, Program Director and now as the Child Sponsorship Program Manager. Through Global Volunteers, I have been able to keep my travel bug alive by participating on programs to the Rio Grande Valley, Texas and Worthington, Minnesota as well as leading teams to Mount Vernon, Jamaica; Hagley Gap, Jamaica; Quito, Ecuador and Xi'an, China.

My passions include latin dancing, travel, reading and learning languages. Salvador and I love to go latin dancing (salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia, you name it), so many a weekend you may be able to catch us on the dance floor at a club or just twirling around our living room. I am fluent in English and Spanish but have dabbled in many other languages, such as Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Somali, American Sign Language and Chinese. If there is an inexpensive language class being offered, you can bet I will be there! Although I may not retain much of the language (since I don't dedicate as much time as I should outside of class studying), the classes intrigue me because you learn so much about a culture when you study their language.

My Philosophy: "You won't know if you don't try."