A Day at the Races: Student Worker Update
Cultural Coalition’s Art & Community Engagement Coordinator Aly Masaquaptewa turned the corner past the halfway point of her time with us, completing her first four months of her Phoenix Department of Arts & Culture Internship with us. When we checked in with her about her experience so far, she had some wonderful moments to share about her time so far:
“This was my second year being involved with the MIKIZTLI: Día de los Muertos Festival. In 2023, I volunteered, assisting the Event Coordinator, and this year, I was honored to be the Volunteer Manager for this event! I helped recruit, train and deploy our volunteers throughout the park. I learned so much through this process and loved working alongside and getting to know our volunteers. As someone who was just a volunteer with Cultural Coalition last year, it was an honor to be trusted in this role.
The weekend after the festival we had more Día de los Muertos outreaches over the weekend, it was a busy time for us at Cultural Coalition, Inc with two activations on both Friday and Saturday. Friday evening I coordinated activations at both the Arizona Center and Phoenix Art Museum. I am so grateful for this job and honored that I am trusted with the responsibility of coordinating the appearances of our organization.
One of the most rewarding projects I’ve gotten to take on during my time at Cultural Coalition, Inc. so far was booking mariachi bands for the NASCAR Championship weekend in Phoenix. I worked with the Nascar Experience Team to bring Mariachi Rubor and Harmony Project Phoenix Youth Mariachi group to the Viva La Fiesta Zone Friday-Sunday.
Through this process I was able to work with the NASCAR Experience Team to bring music all three days. I spent hours and hours trying to navigate the credential registration process for over 40 individuals in order to ensure everyone would be able to get into the event. Sunday was a feat as we had 19 kids and 14 adults we had to bring in, but it was so worth running back and forth and all the phone calls to parents to see the families experience this unique opportunity!”
It’s been wonderful having Aly as part of our pit crew, and look forward to taking a victory lap with her as she accomplishes so much more in the 2nd part of her internship with us this spring.