Staff
El Tiempo Hispano

DELAWARE -- For Ivette Planell-Méndez, community service is more and more necessary. This Puerto Rican young girl is one of five from a Delawarean group that participated in Bank of America's Student Leaders Program.

We met Ivette a few months ago, when she won an award as Delaware's Best Hispanic Student. In this opportunity, we talked to her about her experience in Bank of America's Student Leaders Program. 

(L-R) Emily Speigel, Ivette Planell-Méndez, Catherine Jones, Jimmy Petka and Alice Maio.

She was part of a week-long Student Leadership Summit in Washington (July 18th through 25th), along with other 230 students from all over the country, learning about finance and Federal Government functioning, mainly how corporate, nonprofit and government collaboration is instrumental in community revitalization.

"It was very interesting to meet so many young people committed to what they are doing," says Ivette, "especially the way they link themselves with their communities through different projects." During their stay in Washington, the students visited important national monuments and attended a congressional session. The students were also involved in voluntary work: "One of my chores was to deweed a garden in a park" said Ivette.

In Delaware, five students will participate in an eight-week paid internship at a nonprofit/charitable organization in their local community, sponsored by Bank of America. These students will spend their summer at the Latin American Community Center, where they will have the opportunity to gain precious professional development experience, earn some money and support nonprofits with essential labor and resources (this year, 80% of nonprofits are expecting more demand in services).

Bank of America is investing $1 million in...

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