Valerie Page

Professor Campbell
UWRT 1101
October 5, 2014

Mini-Ethnography: LAWA
For my ethnography paper, I chose to study the Latin American Womens Association of
Charlotte (LAWA). I chose this specific group because it is one I can definitely relate to. I am an
active member and volunteer of this extraordinary organization right here in Charlotte. I have

Jake Weaver 11/23/2014 8:26 PM

Comment [1]: Maybe explain how you can
relate to it.

been involved with this organization for about 5 years now and I feel very connected to each and
every woman part of it. LAWA is a non -profit organization founded by a group of local Latinas
in order to support college education for Latino students in Charlotte, North Carolina. From my
own knowledge and past experiences I have had with LAWA, it offers mentoring and tutoring
programs for student in the Charlotte NC area to enhance academic and social development and
increase high school graduation rates.
This year has been an exciting year at LAWA and both unfortunate.
This past June our Program Coordinator who I worked along-side planning, organizing and preparing for all the events that took place these past few years at LAWA was going to be attending
UNC Chapel Hill this Fall to begin her masters degree in Public Administration. We are all truly
excited and proud of her to start such a life-changing experience and even more excited to see
what she will be accomplishing in the future with her degree and hopefully incorporating her
knowledge into expanding this organization. We were fortunate to have been introduced our new
Program Coordinator of this upcoming year, Gricelda De La Cruz.

Jake Weaver 11/23/2014 8:28 PM

Comment [2]: This is a run on sentence.

When this Fall semester began I still was not personally introduced to Gricelda. This project was a great opportunity for me to sit down with her in a interview setting and get to know
Griceldas views on certain subjects that are brought up in meetings as well as the goals she has

Jake Weaver 11/23/2014 8:29 PM

Comment [3]: What project?

set in her new position here at LAWA. Every year we have our annual Carnival Masquerade ball
during the Holidays which is coming up and has everyone in the office brainstorming creative
ideas and stating them at weekly meetings, its quite exciting hearing everyones new ideas every
year! Before that time of year, on November 6th we are holding a conference on our volunteer

Jake Weaver 11/23/2014 8:29 PM

Deleted: everyones

Padres y Padrinos Tutor training. Padre y Padrinos is translated into Parents and Godparents, this is an educational program that incorporates both the student and parent or guardian of
that child to grow together in his or hers educational life.
This past month I was a great part of the preparation of this important event. At the
LAWA headquarters here in Charlotte, I would briefly see Gricelda in the office since I am not
able to fully commit my time as a member to the organization while I am in school. At the last
meeting I attended this past Friday we discussed this upcoming event. The Padres y Padrinos
conference we will be having our ESL curriculum specialist Rachel Longbrook, who will be presenting helpful information practical tips on how to provide best tutoring to students. The audience we have attending are tutors and new volunteers who will be receiving a detailed manual at
the door, which will be reviewed and explained at this session.
At this meeting, I am staying involved and observing this group while taking notes on the
behaviors, questions, suggestions and answers every woman gives at the table. As a team we all
decide on before closing the conference, there will be a brief Q&A (Question and Answer) session for follow-up questions and comments from the attending audience.

Jake Weaver 11/23/2014 8:30 PM

Deleted: ,

Prior to this meeting, I have already sat down with Gricelda De La Cruz at a scheduled
interview time we decided on having via email this past Thursday in her office. I was expecting
to be in an intense Question & Answer interview setting, but I asked the first few questions and
from then on we had a laid back, organic discussion and I was able to obtain better, detailed information. The first question I asked, What are a few goals you have set this year as the new
Program Coordinator at LAWA? her answer I would like to build exceptional volunteer, parent-student engagement, reach as many Latino students in Charlotte in need of financial support
or mentoring to help further his or hers educational career and lastly Latin American woman
grow closer together in our community to expand this organization more and more every year. I
was very impressed with the answer she gave me at that moment, I was recording her answer
word by word on my phone and while listening back to the recording it almost sounded like she
was reading off of a teleprompter. Her voice was very clear, professional, assertive and graceful
at the same time.
I looked at her with a grin on my face; I knew we would work well together. She is in her
late 20s and knows exactly what position she has taken on at LAWA and plans on accomplishing many exceptional goals she is setting. The second question I asked was How do you think
our first major Padres y Padrinos conference will go next Friday? her answer was I am very
excited to meet all of our tutors, former volunteers and new volunteers, we all have done a great
job coming together to plan this event and I am confident it will be a successful one. From then
on we began discussing the purpose of this mini-ethnography paper, how we view ourselves in
our community as a Latin American Womens Association member/volunteer and how she plans
on adding some more electrifying ideas to the table this year. This mini-ethnography study on the
Latin American Womens Association of Charlotte has made me a lot more involved in the past

Jake Weaver 11/23/2014 8:32 PM

Deleted: face,

few weeks. My observations have not only been useful for this project but for myself, as I grow
as a female Latin American student in Charlotte within this organization.

This was a great paper. You described the meetings and interviews very well. There were just a
few grammatical things that I touched up.

Revised by: Jake Weaver on November 23, 2014