NOWCastSA Intern Hall of Fame

Rebecca Espinoza is an intern through the Students + Startups program. She is an Economics Major at the University of Texas at San Antonio, on track to graduate with her Bachelor's in Business Administration in 2023. She is currently in the Business Honors Program.

She enjoys marketing and analytics, writing, and social media. At UTSA, is the fundraising coordinator of the Women in Leadership and belongs to the Hispanic Student Association.

While she was attending Incarnate Word High School in San Antonio, Rebecca was a Teen Art Guide at the McNay Art Museum and collaborated in the creation of McNay Teen Takeover, which showcased the music, comedy, arts and crafts talents of area teenagers.

Here is her LinkedIn page.

Brandy Ruiz is a multimedia journalism major with a double minor in marketing and political science at the University of Texas at El Paso.

During her summer 2020 internship at NOWCastSA, she monitored and reported on immigration news, a virtual workshop on "Healing with bibliotherapy," and how mask regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic affected people with hearing loss.

Colton was born in Wichita, Kansas, and moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 2017. He came to NOWCastSA through University of Texas at San Antonio's Rowdy Corps program.

He is attending UTSA for his Bachelor's Degree focusing on Public Policy and Mexican American Studies. 

He started his government experience with an Internship at the Kansas House of Representatives (2013-2014), where he helped with the Committee on Children & Seniors. In 2015 he started his second internship at the North Carolina Senate for the Fall Session. In 2016 he started getting involved with youth outreach and civic engagement, where he worked with the Mayor of Euless, Texas, to establish a Youth Advisory Board. Subsequently, he was appointed a Youth Advisory Commissioner for the City of Leavenworth, Kansas, for a 3-year term. During his tenure as a Youth Advisory Commissioner, the Advisory Commission passed a resolution on raising the tobacco age to 21, which the city adopted.

Colton… (full bio)

Edward Olvera is a senior at University of Texas San Antonio whose internship was through the campus Rowdy Corps program. He is majoring in computer science with a focus in software engineering. He hopes to work as an enterprise software engineer after graduation.

Edward also enjoys spending his free time volunteering to help the less fortunate. In the summer of 2018 he traveled the country for six weeks going to six different summer camps to build a variety of  amenities for people of all abilities.

Here is his LinkedIn page.

Hannah Wolf was an intern through the Students + Startups program in the summer before her sophomore year at Trinity University, where she plans to major in English and Geosciences.

During her internship, Hannah worked on content creation, marketing, and managing NowCastSA's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. She also worked on the upcoming "Letters to My Younger Self" project, a video project documenting the stories of LGBT+ San Antonians who have advice to give to their younger selves and the LGBT+ youth of the city.

She goes by she/her. Here is her LinkedIn page.

Madeleine Nerio was an intern with NowCastSA and a Student Ambassador for the City of San Antonio.

She was a politics major at the University of Dallas and graduated in 2019.

Madeleine served her community as a director of the Beacon Hill Area Neighborhood Association when she was in high school.

She was also a research intern for the Tier One Neighborhood Coalition and was awarded a scholarship from the Hatton W. Sumners Foundation that encourages the science and art of self-government.

In 2019, she was a finalist for the Harry S. Truman Foundation Scholarship for her dedication towards neighborhood preservation and empowering inner-city residents. Madeleine is a tenth generation Texas born and raised in inner-city San Antonio.

Here is her LinkedIn page.

Sami Bouls is currently a junior attending St. Mary's University whose internship came through the Students + Startups program. After he graduates from St. Mary’s University with B.B.A. in International Business, he plans to attend law school. During the school year Sami works as a Resident Assistant, where he has had the opportunity to improve his problem solving, time management, and organizational skills.

During the summer of 2019, he was an Intern with NOWCastSA where he worked closely with Charlotte-Anne Lucas on creating sponsorship opportunities and focused on the NOWCastSA’s YouTube Channel.

When not at school or working, Sami enjoys spending time seeing new places, being outdoors, with his family, and enjoying a good laugh with his friends.

Here is his LinkedIn page.

A Brownsville native, Justice graduated from University of Texas at San Antonio in December 2019 with a major in Public Health and minor in Anthropology. Today she is a Risk Reduction Specialist at Health Analytics in Brownsville, Texas.

Justice's internship came through the UTSA Rowdy Corps program. While at NOWCastSA she learned videography, wrote articles, updated maps and became proficient in the CRM database, Salesforce.

Here is her LinkedIn page.

I'm focused on being involved and bettering my community. After graduating, I plan to volunteer abroad with the Peace Corps. After that I plan to continue my education abroad as well. Hopefully, I will come back and make a difference in the community by creating new Public Health interventions that will focus on helping the Hispanic population. My dream is travel the world and become as cultured as one can be, and helping those in need in the… (full bio)

Calasia Haynes is a senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio gaining her Bachelors Degree in communications. Her internship with NOWCastSA came through the campus Rowdy Corps program

Outside of her studies, Calasia is an active member of NAACP, NPHC, videographer, photographer, and editor.

Soren Vaughn began as an intern during the summer before his junior year of high school at BASIS San Antonio Shavano Campus. He will graduate from high school in May, 2020 and plans to major in chemistry at a college to be named.

During his internship, Soren created the first San Antonio-area map of parks just for dogs, and he was the videographer when … (full bio)