Current MA Students

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2006-2008
	Angelica Campos-Estrada has a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington . As an undergraduate student, she studied literature in Spain and business in London . After graduation, she worked for the Highline School District in the Second Language Learner Program, and at Upward Bound. Working with high school students changed her life and dedication to youth, especially to minority and first generation college students. She is a first year M.A. student for Latin American Studies. Her interests include business, education, Spanish, history, and migration among the Mexican community.
	Iris Chang has a B.A. in Foreign Trade from the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She is a first year MA in Latin American Studies. She would like to focus her research on Social Development and Human Rights.
	Luz Minerva Colon-Rodriguez was born in Guayama, Puerto Rico, but has been living in the US for the past fifteen years with her mother and younger sisters. She received her BA from the College of the Holy Cross where she majored in History and completed a concentration in Latin American and Latino Studies. During her time there, she participated in many diversity and leadership conferences. In her senior year she was the Committee Chair for the 2005 New England Regional Latino Student Leadership Conference. After graduation she took a year off and worked in the non-profit sector where she still works part-time as the Assistant Director of the South Worcester Neighborhood Center. Currently, she is a candidate for a M.A. in Latin American Studies, where she hopes to focus on Latin American and Caribbean History. Her ultimate goal is to become a professor, tour Latin America, and teach at a small college where she can continue to be involved with issues of diversity. She is extremely excited to be at UCONN and looks forward to her time here.
	Cristina Durango was born in Quito, Ecuador . She is a first year MA student in Latin American Studies. She obtained her BA in Organizational Communications at Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. She worked for CARE International in Ecuador for the last nine years. Her professional experience focuses on social development related issues. She worked as Communications Officer for CARE. Other positions include Assistant to the Country Office Director and Resources Mobilization Coordinator; and Assistant to the Health Sector. She is interested in Latin American development issues.
	Caroline Napoli was born in New York, NY and grew up in New Jersey. She attended the University of Rhode Island for her undergraduate studies and received a BA in Latin American Studies and International Development Studies. She lived for two years in Manta, Ecuador teaching in a colegio there. She has also spent extensive time in Costa Rica and Spain. Caroline is interested in developmental issues of Latin America, specifically education.
	Jorge Hernandez Hernandez was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. He received his B.A. in International Relations from the Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla in Mexico. During his undergraduate studies he concentrated on international organizations and NGO's. He is currently a first year M.A. student in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. His research interests include migration, human rights, and US-Mexico relations.
	Laurie Vega-Boulay is a first generation American daughter to parents from Spain and Colombia. She was born and raised in Connecticut, and currently lives in Coventry with her husband Tim and 16 month old son, Max. She attended UCONN her freshman year, but ultimately recieved a BA in Spanish Language and Literature from Arizona State University in 1998. She is currently a high school Spanish teacher at RHAM High School in Hebron, Connecticut. She hopes to graduate from UCONN's graduate program with a MA in Latin American Studies while focusing on Anthropology.

2005-2007
	Liam Fitzgerald grew up in Mansfield, Connecticut and received a BA in International Relations and Spanish from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. After college he joined the Peace Corps in El Salvador. He is a first year MA student in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Department at UCONN. His academic interests include political science, immigration, and human rights. He lives in Willimantic with his salvadoran wife and an 11 month old daughter.
	Yazmin Garcia-Trejo was born in Mexico City. She graduated from the IPN ( Instituto Politecnico Nacional ) with a B.A. in Economics. At University of Connecticut, she recently graduated from the M.A. in Survey Research and she is currently in the Latin American Studies Master's program at the University of Connecticut. She has worked as a research and teaching assistant at CIDE ( Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas ) and as a research specialist at the CSRA (Center for Survey Research and Analysis). Now, she is working as a Graduate Assistant at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Her areas of interest include: public opinion in Mexico and Latin America, political behavior, in particular, political participation of women in Mexico, quantitative methods in survey research and political marketing.
	Elena Gibbons Serapiglia is a native of Connecticut and received a BA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is a first year MA student in Latin American and Caribbean Studies with a concentration in Latin American History. Before beginning the MA, she taught Spanish at Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, CT.
2004-2006
	Emma Balbina Amador. Second year MA student in Latin American Studies. She obtained her BA in Liberal Arts (concentrating on Latino/a Studies) from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. Her overall focus is on issues of gender, ethnicity, migration and class. In particular she is interested in: Latino/a studies, Puerto Rican studies, Caribbean women's history, Caribbean migration, historical anthropology, oral history, ethnography and human rights. She is currently working on her final project, which uses oral history to explore the migration experience of Puerto Rican women domestic workers to the U.S. in the 1950's. It locates these women as agents in the transnational and transformative process of defining work and family relationships.
	Maria Fernanda Enríquez L. Second year student in the MA in Latin American Studies. She is interested in development issues in Ecuador. As part of this big area, her focus includes democratization issues in Ecuador and indigenous movement involvement in politics. She obtained her undergraduate degree in business in Escuela de Negocios del Pacifico in Quito, Ecuador. Her studies abroad include a course in the National Institute of Rural Development in Hyderabad, India (2002) and a course in Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia (2003). She worked for ten years in the Small Grants Programme of the UNDP, a program devoted to providing grants to grass roots organizations and NGOs in order to implement projects in biodiversity, climate change and international waters protection.
	Kerry Stefancyk. Second year student in the MA in Latin American Studies. Her area of focus is economic and social rights in Latin American countries. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire, majoring in Spanish and minoring in Latin American Studies. Her most recent employment has been as a third grade Spanish immersion teacher at Woodland Elementary School in Milford, MA.
	Emily Stumph (Gallagher). Second year student in the MA in Latin American Studies. Her area of focus is education, specifically bilingual education in Latin American countries. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Math and Secondary Education from Boston College. Her most recent employment has been with Reach Out and Read, a non-profit literacy organization based in Boston.