October 28, 2009 – Someone You Should Know

Magdalena Jacobo ’13 volunteers time in the Delaware community as a Spanish-English translator for local children and families.

Photo by Shade Fakunle ’10

¡Bienvenidos, Magdalena Jacobo!
Ohio Wesleyan student volunteers as a Spanish translator

“¡Hola! ¿Como estas?” is a phrase many may might hear when they meet Magdalena Jacobo ’13 at work as a translator at Delaware’s Woodward Family Resource Center. When Jacobo isn’t in class or doing school work, this first-year student from Juarez, Mexico, volunteers as translator for local Spanish speaking children and families.

“I really like it because I get to know a lot of families in the neighborhood, and I get to help them,” Jacobo says. “The kids are 7 and 8 years old and are just learning English when they go to school.”

Jacobo says she often helps the children with their homework when they don’t understand the assignments or the teacher comments written in English.

She works about nine hours a week at the center, including special events such as recent parent-teacher conferences where she helped translate for Spanish-speaking parents and English-speaking teachers.

When she isn’t at work, Jacobo often may be found listening to worship music or reading a biography or fiction book. “I’m pretty quiet,” she says.

Back home in Juarez, Jacobo also was involved in her community. She participated in various community service projects such as picking up trash on weekends and helping at her church.

During the summer, she worked with a non-profit organization called Servants in Faith (SIFATS), a group that trains missionaries.

“I was there working with teens and showing them the needs of people in other countries such as Guatemala, Uganda, and the Philippines. It was a pretty good experience,” she says.

Jacobo says she is motivated and inspired by her parents. “My parents are role models to me because they come from very humble environments. My father was the first one in his family to go to college.”

Her mother didn’t finish high school and instead began working in a factory at age 14 to help her own parents. “My parents always taught me to appreciate things in life,” Jacobo says.

Also at home is her little brother, Arturo. The siblings get along pretty well, but Jacobo finds being the oldest a little frustrating. “Your parents put pressure on you to be the role model, and they have more expectations of you,” she says.

Over the past few years, Jacobo says, life in Juarez has taken a dramatic turn for many families like hers.

“Things have changed a lot with the all the violence going on. There was a time when my parents, my brother, and I, would spend the weekends at home because it was so unsafe to go out even to the movies or to have dinner,” Jacobo remembers.

Before that time, she enjoyed life at home and spending time with her friends and family. Now, things are much different. “You’ll never know what would happen when you are on the street,” she says.

At Ohio Wesleyan, Jacobo’s challenge is choosing a major. She is torn between engineering and early childhood education.

“I am looking at engineering because I like math and physics, but I can’t see myself doing it for the rest of my life. For education, I think it’s something that I would like to do because I like kids a lot and I like to help them,” she says with a grin.

As she nears the end of her first semester in college, Jacobo has dived right into her new life away from home. She is incorporating herself into her new world and enjoying the ride.

Fun Facts About Magdalena

• Favorite color: orange
• Favorite food: spaghetti
• Favorite season: Christmas
• Magda’s trademark: my bangs
• Pet peeve: when people make noises while eating
• Last book: The Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy by Camara Laye
• Favorite music artist: Brooke Fraiser

– Emily Hastings ’10