Ramón Talavera Franco
I hold a Master of Arts in Spanish from Texas
A&M International University, and a Spanish as a Foreign Language Teacher's
Certificate (DELE) from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
I am the creator of ¡Y qué me cuentas!,
a Spanish as a foreign language course and blog (http://yquemecuentas.blogspot.com ) that
uses readings of short stories and poems by Hispanic authors for instruction. I
had the pleasure of teaching this course at Faulk Central Library in Austin for
over 1½ years, and I’m proud that it continues after my relocation to Boston a
few months ago.
At my most recent job, I was the coordinator
of the LUCHA program (http://www.utexas.edu/ce/k16/lucha/overview/ ) at The University of Texas at Austin K-16 Education
Center. LUCHA is a high school intervention program for Mexican immigrant
students in Texas public schools. In this position, I oversaw the program’s
daily operations. Among my many responsibilities, I identified challenges and
recommended solutions for academic programs, created an innovative Mexico-Texas
high school curricula comparison to ensure Hispanic students’ academic success,
and coordinated efforts between Mexico and Texas educational agencies in order
to create agreements of collaboration.
From 2009 to 2011, I was a member of the
Advisory Board of the Institute of the Mexicans Abroad (IMA) (www.ime.gob.mx ). The
Advisory Board provides assistance to the IMA in the design and implementation
of actions geared towards Mexican communities abroad. The advisory board is comprised
of 152 members (Mexicans or Mexican-Americans living in the U.S), and
represents the best example in history of an organizational effort by Mexicans
living abroad. The IMA's Advisory Board has become an excellent bridge of
communication between Mexican immigrant leaders and their Mexican-American
counterparts. It has also served as a channel to articulate the needs and
interests of important segments of Mexican communities in the US on a national
level.
From 2000 to 2005, I worked as the Community
Affairs Attaché at the Mexican Consulate of Mexico in Laredo, TX. In this
position, I coordinated the planning and organization of programs in the areas
of education, culture, sports, and health among the Mexican-American and
Mexican communities in the bordering cities of Nuevo Laredo, MX and Laredo TX.
Prior to this experience in the United States,
I worked for over fifteen years in Mexico in the area of mass media
communications and designing of ESL TV series. I worked as a reporter and
scriptwriter in companies such as Mexico Desconocido Magazine, Radiópolis,
Televisa, TV Azteca, Instituto Latinoamericano de la Comunicación Educativa (ILCE),
and Unidad de Televisión Educativa y Cultural (UTEC).
Please send me your comments and questions here