ME&A Headquarters Extends Warm Welcome to 2024 Intern
ME&A’s headquarters proudly welcomed Mariana Garcia-Ortiz, an accomplished and captivating recent college graduate, as the latest addition to ME&A’s internship program this winter. Mariana graduated from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, in 2023 with a B.A. in Philosophy.
Mariana is supporting ME&A’s business development team with writing, research, and reaching out to potential and existing partners to coordinate proposal efforts. She has also assisted project teams with writing and researching client Requests for Information (RFIs) as scheduling allows.
“Since starting at ME&A in December everyone has been extremely welcoming. This has proven to be a wonderful environment to work in and learn. I have gained valuable experience in business development, government contracting, international development, and more,” she said. “All of this has taught me practical and soft skills that I am confident will come in handy in my future, leaving me beyond grateful for this opportunity.”
Mariana brings expertise in quantitative survey design, data analysis, data visualization, and video editing. Her previous work experience includes working as a data analyst, tutor, and campaign worker. Moreover, she lived as a young child in Mexico and Spain and is completely bilingual in Spanish benefiting from practicing Spanish with family members since.
She emphasized how happy she is to be able to use her Spanish and multicultural skills as an intern to explore a career in international development.
“I have always wanted to have a meaningful career that allows me to utilize my time, skills, and labor toward making the world a better place,” she said. “ME&A has set me on that path as I am confident the work we do here is meaningful and beneficial to the world at large.”
Like the rest of ME&A, Mariana is working on a hybrid schedule. Tuesdays and Fridays she goes to the office whereas Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays she works from home.
“ME&A provides interns the tools to help them grow in their chosen field or explore a career in international development by exposing them to different areas of expertise that ME&A has,” said Director of Human Resources Lizette Laserna Salvador who runs ME&A’s internship program. “The pandemic has not changed that. Our hands-on, hybrid, on-the-job experience helps interns develop an expertise to be used as a springboard for a rewarding career.”