Meet Our New 2015-2016 Intern: Pat McCormick

Pat is a 2015 graduate of SUNY Geneseo and earned a BA in Political Science. While at Geneseo, he was President of Enlace Project Geneseo club on campus and helped fundraise for Enlace Project as well as promote the study abroad opportunities to El Sauce that Geneseo offers. During his time with Enlace Project, Pat will help us connect with more US based partners, run our marketing, and continue to develop the English program. Along the way, Pat hopes to hone his Spanish and his understanding of Nicaraguan culture. Recently we had a chance to chat with him about his plans for the internship.

Q: What made you want to work with Enlace Project? A: For me Enlace Project offers me the chance to work with an organization that has a unique and important development strategy. Too many well-intentioned NGOs end up in creating a dependency trap that actually hurts the people they are trying to help. Our model focuses on teaching people skills and building the human capital to make people independently capable of improving their own lives. And obviously my previous time in El Sauce played a huge role in me applying for the internship. As a student I made meaningful connections with my host-family and the people here over the course of two months that I get to keep strengthening and growing today. Q: Do you have any favorite Nicaraguan food? A: I love all of the fresh juices you get to have here, really makes Tropicana look bad. For me though, plantains, especially “maduro,” are an absolute must eat. You can never go wrong with gallo pinto though. Q: What are your goals for your time here? A: I want to strengthen our connections to our partners in the United States. Many of our supporters and partners would love to be more involved and I want to make sure that we create opportunities for that to happen. I will be reaching out to groups we’ve worked with in the past, as well as to new groups in the coming months to explore what those opportunities will look like and how to make them a reality.

If you are interested in learning more about working with Enlace Project or just have questions and want to contact Pat, email him at mccormickp19043@gmail.com.