Machaela Parkin Email & Phone Number

San Diego, Ca, Us

In addition to my work on the Eastern European and Central Asian Languages team, I also joined the Spanish Team as a Co-Lead in October 2024. I am responsible for responding to incoming Spanish requests, managing relationships with partner organizations and individuals, expanding the work of our team, recruiting new volunteers, and managing a team of nearly 500 linguists and several volunteer project managers and interns.

In June 2024, I transitioned into the role of team lead for all Eastern European and Central Asian languages at Respond Crisis Translation, covering Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Tajik, and other regional languages. Our team works in over 25 different language combinations, and we respond to requests for language support from individuals and organizations. In my role, I am responsible for managing a team of over 400 linguists, responding to requests for language support, recruiting and screening new linguists, and publicizing and sharing the work of our team.

I joined Respond Crisis Translation as a Spanish and Ukrainian translator in February 2022, shortly after the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Within a few months, I joined the Ukrainian team as a project manager, handling translation and interpretation requests from Ukrainian refugees and Belarusian and Russian asylum seekers and connecting them to our team of translators. As a volunteer, I coordinated nearly 100 different projects with our team of over 400 volunteer Ukrainian and Russian translators.

New York, New York, United States

Walked around the perimeter of the Columbia and Barnard campuses several mornings per week to record information about dead and injured birds

New York, New York, United States

During my two years at Columbia, I worked as the school mascot, Roar-EE the Lion, at different athletic games and other university events. I was responsible for engaging with students, entertaining crowds at sporting events, and supporting with other types of events as needed. In case anyone was wondering, being a mascot is harder than it looks.

Tutored incoming freshman from low income and first generation backgrounds to help them develop essay writing skills necessary to succeed in University Writing and other academic disciplines

New York, United States

New York, United States

I was part of the inaugural cohort of the Social Impact Fellowship, oraganized by Columbia World Projects and modelled off of the Obama Scholars Fellowship. I participated in a six-week long summer intensive, which was focused on building skills in the area of social impact work. I continued to participate in fellowship activities throughout the academic year.

I joined the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project as an intern in September 2021. NWIRP is an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of immigrants through direct legal services, litigation, and advocacy.In my position, I translated legal documents (birth certificates, court documents, declarations, etc.), helped pro se clients fill out asylum applications, and worked under staff attorneys to provide support for direct representation cases. Additionally, I also worked with the Department of Corrections Project to help connect incarcerated immigrants with legal services. I was able to learn so much through my time at NWIRP, particularly through gaining hands-on experience with a variety of different cases and projects.

I worked as a food delivery driver through various delivery apps during the pandemic. Although this kind of learning isn’t always as valued as it should be, I had to learn how to work under pressure and manage several tasks at the same time.

San Diego, California, United States

I worked as an intern in the Citizenship Education Program at the International Rescue Committee (San Diego office) during the spring/summer of 2021. Some of my main tasks involved assisting with and preparing materials for citizenship classes, emailing and calling clients for class registration and USCIS appointments, maintaining a database with client information, and running practice interview workshops with prospective US citizens who were awaiting their citizenship interview appointments. Occasionally I would also assist in other departments if there was a need for extra help. Through the internship, I was able to learn more about the US immigration system as a whole and the process of applying for naturalization. I also value the insights I gained through one-on-one interactions with my students. It was so beautiful to see many of my students go on to become US citizens!

From March 2019 until late 2021 I worked as an online English tutor with students from around the world. Most of my lessons were conversational or designed to help students prepare for the IELTS exam. I connected with around 600 different students, primarily from Turkey, Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia, and through them I was able to gain insights from other cultures and learn effective methods for teaching ESL students.