Stories

Hector Navarro, a senior history major from South San Francisco spent almost a month this past summer working as an intern for a non-profit social agency in Nicaragua. The agency, Viviendas León, works with indigenous people in the rural areas outside of the city of León. The agency’s partners are generally single mothers and women who had been victimized by various forms of abuse. The agency works with the local people on various projects relating to sustainable agriculture and honey production, as well as the establishment of a sewing cooperative. Hector's time was generally spent conducting interviews in Spanish with the indigenous women, in order to assess the level of success that Viviendas León's projects have attained and to investigate ways in which the projects could become more helpful for the local people. Hector also assisted the agency with various grant writing projects. (By the way, Hector found out about Viviendas León through BroncoLink (now Handshake) through the SCU Career Center. Check it out!)

Hector went to Riordan High School in San Francisco. He developed his passion for history while taking a lower division survey course on East Asian History from Professor Barbara Molony during his first year. While focusing somewhat on Latin American history, he appreciates the breadth of courses that he has been able to take in the history department. He lived in McLaughlin Hall for two years and in Nobili Hall for one year. Hector plays the trumpet in the SCU Mariachi Band, and is one of the co-editors of the department’s student journal, Historical Perspectives.