Introducing another new addition to the Words Alive team: our spring Storytelling Intern, Gabby Villadolid! Read on to learn more about Gabby!
Gabby’s storytelling work at Words Alive combines her love of reading and writing and passion for social justice. She attended Loyola Marymount University in LA for a year before transferring to Georgetown University, where she studied various social issues intersecting gender, immigration, globalization, post-conflict justice and more as a Justice and Peace Studies major. Her involvement in literacy and nonprofits progressed from volunteering as at-home English tutor for a DC student with an immigrant background to interning at Ronald McDonald House Charities Philippines, which provided English and Filipino literacy programs to public elementary school partners throughout the archipelago. After graduating last year, Gabby is currently finishing up her fellowship research project on education and racial justice as she joins Words Alive virtually from the Bay Area!
Gabby’s dog, Max!
In her free time, Gabby loves playing with her senior dog Max; watching cooking videos; and expressing herself through makeup, fashion, and music! She sings everyday and hopes to improve her instrument playing and songwriting. A true introvert and story nerd, she is happiest while at home listening to her favorite musical artists or true crime podcasts, or just curling up in bed with a new novel or webcomic.
Now, here’s a few words from Gabby!
What drew you to intern at Words Alive?
Words Alive’s Storytelling internship just happened to marry all of my personal and post-grad, next-step professional interests into one! I wanted the opportunity to develop my writing skills in a communications role while engaging in social impact/justice work. I also attribute much of my educational and individual formation to geeking out on books and comics since I was young, so Words Alive’s mission to address systemic inequities by providing community reading programs really resonated with me. Lastly, conducting qualitative social science research in my undergrad taught me to fall in love with the impact and process of storytelling, so as soon as I saw the words “Storytelling Intern” on LinkedIn’s internship post I knew I had to sign up!
What is your favorite aspect of the work you do?
I am currently just starting out, but I really love how intentional Words Alive is with supporting one another as a team and implementing positive change by embodying it themselves in mindsets and actions. We just had a Board and Staff Retreat on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility discussing the importance of using inclusive and asset-based language, and throughout the retreat I felt so lucky that I joined!
What book or story has had a big impact on you? Do you have a favorite quote?
“According to you, healing is a relationship between doctor and patient. ‘Di ba? Pero you’re wrong. Alam mo, healing? Ay mundo yan. It’s a world. So what you think about it matters. You’re involved.”
Reading America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo was so jarring because it was my first time reading a novel completely about modern Filipino-American characters—I could picture their stories so well because they either mirrored similar contexts and experiences in my own life or in the lives of other Filipinos, down to the very last detail. It taps into the nuances of Filipino and Filipino-American narratives of history, politics, and identity and how these manifest in the lives of protagonist Hero De Vera and her immigrant family coming to grips with their pasts and starting anew in Milpitas, California. As a second-generation Filipino-American immigrant born and raised in the Bay Area, I felt so affirmed reading about the De Veras’ struggles and resilience in valuing fluctuating meanings of home, family, and other cultural values. I also appreciate that this story provides representation for persons who identify as LGBTQ+!
What is your favorite recent read?
I actually picked up this book because it was on BookTok—The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It’s about a woman named Nora who fatefully encounters the Midnight Library, a place between life and death where one has the chance to revisit and experience different life choices through reading the library’s infinite books, each containing an alternate life story for every possibility. I’m fascinated by the idea of parallel universes and found this story sobering, uplifting, all the good adjectives BookTok described it to be!