January 28 at 12 p.m. on Teams

Watch the recording on YouTube.

In order to be competitive in the labor market, students need to have a combination of academic, technical, transferrable, and life skills. One of the best ways for students to acquire these skills is through the integration of experiential learning opportunities such as internships. However, data around this topic consistently show significant disparities in terms of race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, educational attainment, and many more intersecting identities.

In this session, industry experts Jacqueline Javier and Carlos Mark Vera will join a panel of UTD students to discuss the racial and economic disparities in unpaid internships. Sharing their unique experiences and advocacy work, panelists will contribute meaningful dialogue while discussing factual data and steps to build a more diverse and talented internship pipeline for future professionals.

Jacqueline Javier is a Senior Program Manager at Jobs for the Future (JFF), a national nonprofit organization that is building a society in which everyone has the skills, resources, and credentials they need to achieve economic advancement. In this capacity, she provides technical assistance to community colleges across the U.S. to help students earn high-quality, well-paid jobs.
Prior to JFF, Jacqueline was the Program Manager for Work-Based Learning at Pasadena City College. In this role, she led a team of staff and helped develop internships and other experiential learning programs. Jacqueline created a fellowship program with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses and a mentorship program with Kaiser Permanente to help students from historically excluded populations gain access to career development opportunities. She was also an advocate of paid internships and helped establish industry partnerships to help students gain access to meaningful professional development opportunities. Jacqueline holds a master’s degree in higher education leadership and student development from California Baptist University (CBU) and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Riverside (UCR).

Carlos Mark Vera is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Pay Our Interns. Originally from Colombia, Carlos was raised in California but moved to Washington, D.C. to attend American University. While at AU, Carlos was an unpaid intern at the White House, the European Parliament, and the House of Representatives. He knows firsthand the struggles of trying to survive while interning for free. This led him to Under his leadership, Pay Our Interns successfully convinced Congress to pass more than $48 million in funding for interns and has helped nonprofits, companies, and presidential campaigns create their internship programs. Carlos’ efforts on Capitol Hill led him to be named a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree, Echoing Green Fellow, Camelback Ventures Fellow, a Top 20 Changemaker by NBC Latino, and an Aspen Ideas Fellow. He has been featured in the Washing Post, NPR’s All Things Considered, the New York Times, CNN, and the Atlantic. He has also written for the Washington Post, Teen Vogue, USA Today, and NBC Latino. Carlos proudly served in the Army Reserve as a mechanic for 8 years.

This event is sponsored by the School of Arts and Humanities. 

Watch previous teach-ins on YouTube
Follow us on Instagram @utdteachinseries
If you support the work we do, please consider sponsoring a speaker or event.