Xania Bytof is the Summer 2019 Membership Junior Fellow. She recently graduated from UCLA with a BA in International Development Studies and a minor in Global Health. Prior to her Junior Fellowship with the Pacific Council, Xania interned with the development operations department at Children’s Bureau of Southern California. In 2018, Xania studied in Santiago, Chile for a semester where she was a full-time student at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and an intern with the local nonprofit organization Comunidad Organizaciones Solidarias. 

Xania’s interest in the Spanish language and Latin America started in her childhood neighborhood, where the majority of her friends and neighbors were Spanish-speaking. Throughout her college career, Xania has been able to explore this interest through her involvement with FISH at UCLA, an entirely student-run nonprofit organization that provides sustainable health and educational services to the community of Maclovio Rojas, Mexico. With FISH, Xania served as a member of the Training team and was responsible for designing and presenting trainings on all organization services including cultural competence, blood pressure screening and Spanish language learning. 

In the future, Xania hopes to pursue a career in the nonprofit field in Latin America. More specifically, her goal is to improve the ethics and effectiveness of international development organizations by helping to implement resilient practices and facilitate direct participation by the local community.