April, 2009
The Exchange Visitor Program is proud to announce Ana Catalina “Caty” Santos as April’s Exchange Visitor of the Month. Each month, we select an exchange visitor who has made an effort to get involved in his/her community and explore American Culture.
Ana Catalina “Caty” Santos, 26 of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, is a J-1 Exchange Visitor in New York City at the Harlem Children Society (HCS). Caty, who grew up in a border town, saw people migrate to the United States in the hopes of acquiring an education. As a result, Caty is dedicated to providing guidance and education to New York City’s diverse youth population through her training at HCS.
“As an individual with the privilege of a higher education,” Caty said, “I believe that helping others in my community is not a job, but rather a moral responsibility. I believe that having access to an education has become a necessity rather than a privilege in today’s society.”
Caty uses the words of Dr. Sat Bhattacharya, founder of HCS, to describe HCS’s work— “glocal”—since HCS is a “local” organization that interacts with New York City’s communities and runs the same programs “globally” with the same vision and purpose.
In addition to running workshops and lectures where students interact with professionals working in the scientific community, the HCS also holds an annual “Harlem Science Street Fair and Festival” each fall, which aims to bring the sciences directly to the streets and promotes the importance of access to knowledge and education for the under-served and under-represented.
Through her training, Caty is able to share her Mexican culture by teaching coworkers and students Spanish. She also had the opportunity to work with the United Nations at the “53rd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.”
More importantly, Caty’s unique experiences and perspective from outside her training have better informed her work with HCS and the impact she is able to make on the community she cares so much about.
“As a border city native, I had the opportunity to learn about the American culture and its interactions with other countries such as Mexico,” Caty said. “However, my experiences outside the HCS training and my involvement with the United Nations have definitely given me another perspective on the influence of American culture around the world. I feel privileged and honored to be living in a country where people have the freedom to speak their minds, and where nothing seems to be impossible.”