Last spring, Carmela Sofia De Llano Hernandez, a student in the Honors Global Challenges & Solutions (HGLO) program and a junior sociology major, completed an internship with the U.S. Census Bureau’s School Pulse Panel project, an initiative born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project surveys school principals nationwide to assess various aspects of education, from teacher well-being to school culture. Her responsibilities included requesting permissions to survey schools, a task requiring meticulous attention to detail given the federal nature of the documents.
De Llano Hernandez is in HGLO’s UMD Fellows Internship track, one of two pathways available to the program’s second-year students, connecting students with UMD’s prestigious Global Fellows program. The track is designed to provide students with real-world policy experience, offering fall semester classes taught by practitioners with extensive policy backgrounds, followed by spring internships focused on federal and international policy.
What makes De Llano Hernandez’s internship with the federal government particularly noteworthy is her status as a non-U.S. citizen. She was born in Spain and raised in Venezuela until the age of eight when her family moved to the U.S. She has spent her formative years in the American education system, growing up immersed in U.S. culture while maintaining ties to her Venezuelan heritage. She is passionate about civic engagement—in part because of the opportunities that have been denied her because of her non-citizen status—and yearns to make a positive impact through policy research.
The internship was transformative for De Llano Hernandez. “I became aware of the power of numbers and how they are reported,” she said, noting how this aligns with her interest in census categories and their impact on Hispanic/Latine communities. As a Latina woman, she brings a unique perspective to her work, particularly regarding the complexities of racial and ethnic categorization, as well as crucial linguistic and cultural competencies.
De Llano Hernandez’s experience at the Census Bureau reinforced her passion for using quantitative skills to address social issues. She particularly appreciated the trust placed in her by her predominantly female team, who prioritized her physical and mental well-being throughout the internship.
Looking ahead, she plans to pursue internships with private survey centers like Pew or Gallup before embarking on graduate studies in sociology. Her HGLO experience has been instrumental in helping her realize the career potential in social data analysis. “When I started at UMD, I thought I would work in international development, with numbers as a side skill,” she said. “HGLO made me realize that this could be a career.”
—
The Honors Global Challenges and Solutions (HGLO) program aims to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and interdisciplinary perspective needed to address complex global issues through a combination of rigorous coursework, research opportunities, and experiential learning. Learn more about the HGLO program at hglo.umd.edu.
Feature image description: Carmela De Llano Hernandez with her supervisor, Elke McLaren, at the Fellows Academic Showcase at UMD last spring. McLaren is an assistant survey director at the U.S. Census Bureau.
