Alumni Highlights
Rachel Humphreys, Spanish, BA Spanish & Public Relations, 2011
Rachel Humphreys
2011 Graduate
Language: Spanish
Major: Spanish and Public Relations
Rachel has been a champion for youth in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector of Grand Rapids for more than a decade. Using what she learned in her Spanish classes and year-long study abroad in Spain, she infuses her work with a racial equity and social justice lens. She currently serves as the Development Director at Affinity Mentoring, a local nonprofit, where she regularly uses her degree from GVSU to connect with students and families whose native language is Spanish. Before joining Affinity she served as the Director of Youth and Parent Services at the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan and as a consultant for the DeVos Foundation. She also earned a Master of Science in Communications from GVSU in 2018.
Understanding a second language and culture has propelled her career and helped make her, not only a competitive candidate in the workforce, but also a powerful change agent for racial equity. Rachel has been recognized nationally for her evidenced-based practices that help accelerate Latino student success in higher education and has presented her findings at UnidosUS Annual Conference, UnidosUS Workforce Development Conference, National Summer Learning Association Annual Conference, and Excelencia in Education’s Accelerating Latino Student Success (ALASS) Conference. She is active in the community and serves as the Chair of the Diversity, Inclusion, and Global Outreach Committee at YMCA Camp Manitou-Lin, Marketing and Communications Co-Chair at Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, and is a mentor for a 2nd grade student who is learning English as her third language. They communicate in both of their second languages, Spanish.
Updated August 2020
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