GOLD RUSH: Tennis Player Enjoys Helping Others
1/12/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
This article was originally published in the January edition of Gold Rush.
Luisa Fernandez, a junior on the women's tennis team, effortlessly stands out in a crowd by virtue of her unwaveringly cheerful demeanor and her long red hair. Always smiling and eager to help others, she serves as a representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and a leader in promoting community outreach programming among her teammates and peers. One particular organization with which Luisa has been consistently involved is "Help Our People Eat," more commonly known as H.O.P.E. This organization delivers healthy meals to underprivileged families in the Winston-Salem community every Sunday, and several of the food truck's destinations are dominated by Spanish speakers.
H.O.P.E. recently developed a mobile application that lists a variety of valuable resources such as nearby food and clothing banks, shelters, tutoring opportunities and medical clinics within Forsyth County. During one particular shift at H.O.P.E. last spring, Luisa herself had an important realization; she realized that the organization's phone application was written solely in English, which undoubtedly prevented Spanish-speaking groups from benefitting. Luisa herself grew up in Mexico, where she lived for the first 10 years of her life and learned to speak fluent Spanish. Moreover, Luisa's Spanish-speaking father started a mobile application company during his time in Mexico. Thus, she figured that he might be the perfect candidate to assist H.O.P.E. in creating an application tailored toward Spanish speakers.
When Luisa returned home for the summer, her father initially agreed to the task; yet he soon realized that the application could not simply be replicated in Spanish. It had been created by an existing company called Footprints, and therefore every individual component of the application would have to be translated individually. Luisa is not one to back down from a challenge, however. After contacting the company and gaining access to its website, she took the initiative herself to translate all 150-plus of the application's entries after copying and pasting them into Microsoft Word. Although the task was at times daunting and time-consuming, Luisa enthusiastically insists "it was fun in that I was helping others...in that way it wasn't a burden at all." And through this project, Luisa explains that she was able to witness just how many places there are in Winston-Salem dedicated to helping others combat poverty.
After the lengthy translation process, Luisa inserted the individual descriptions of each food bank, shelter and so forth in its proper location. Then she finally downloaded the application in Spanish herself, and her excitement radiates as she describes the end result, excitedly exclaiming that singular moment when "It worked!" Now, those who download H.O.P.E.'s mole application can select a Spanish-speaking option; and if their phones are already set to Spanish, the application automatically downloads and updates itself in that language.
Although it may seem as if she has successfully completed her intended project, Luisa maintains that the task is not quite finished. Now it is imperative that the application be downloaded by as many individuals in need (English and Spanish speakers alike) as possible. Luisa urges that this resource be promoted and passed along to all who might benefit, and she intends to eventually create fliers to pass along to various sites within the community as an effective way to advertise the application.
Luisa's initiative in translating H.O.P.E.'s application, as well as her desire to ensure that it be utilized to the benefit of as many population's as possible, reflects an admirable spirit of "Pro Humanitate" and an estimable selflessness. One can follow Luisa's example by volunteering with H.O.P.E. on Sunday afternoons and by simply spreading awareness of the new-and-improved H.O.P.E. application. For more information about H.O.P.E., visit its website at http://www.hopenews.org/ or download the food source locator application through the App Store.
Players Mentioned
