Alumni Highlights
Alissa Rodriguez, Spanish, BA Spanish, 2010
Alissa Rodriguez
2010 Graduate
Language: Spanish
Major: Spanish
Minor: Psychology
Following graduation in 2010, Alissa began working as a bilingual family support worker for the Healthy Families program within Catholic Charities West Michigan. Even with little experience, she was hired because of her fluency in Spanish. The majority of her caseload was made up of Spanish-speaking families looking for guidance in raising young children. Not only did she use her skills to communicate with clients during home visits, but also as an interpreter during medical and assistance program appointments. In 2013, Alissa pursued a highly competitive internship to become a Certified Child Life Specialist (CCLS). She completed her clinical internship at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit where she used her Spanish to communicate with many pediatric patients and families. Alissa continues to find value in speaking Spanish as a CCLS at Metro Health-University of Michigan Health in Wyoming MI. During her time as a student, Alissa studied abroad in Bilbao, Spain during the summer of 2009 and traveled to Nicaragua for spring break as part of her capstone final project. Through these experiences she learned not only language and culture, but most importantly, made lifelong friendships.
To anyone considering Modern Languages and Literatures, Alissa’s advice is this: “I highly recommend pursuing a language degree because it will always put you at the top of the job market and the connections you develop will provide you with endless opportunities.”
Updated March 2019
Share this spotlight
Return to the listing of alumni highlights.