By: Kelsey Braun ’22, Editor in Chief 

At the end of January, the New York State Department of Labor announced a new social media account that will provide resources to Spanish speakers. The Twitter account called @NYSDOLenEspanol is set to improve accessibility to New Yorkers by providing information on workers’ rights and protections, job opportunities, immigration policies, and even COVID-19 updates.

Spanish Professor and Chair of the Modern Languages and Cultures department at St. John Fisher College, Fransisco Plata, is teaching a class this semester about Spanish translation. The news of the new Department of Labor Twitter account made his class hopeful that the resource will be effective in helping Spanish speakers.

“I was proud to see that this was actually happening,” said senior Madison Morgan. “Living in the United States, Spanish is such a prominent language and it seems like people just overlook that all the time. So even just seeing the thought of this was heartwarming to me.”

Junior Glerizbeth Sanchez said it’s important for Spanish speakers to understand immigration news and updates in their native language. “I feel like for the Spanish-speaking community it is very important for them to understand what is going on.”

“I would just hope that there’s a variety of jobs, not just minimum wage jobs. And they actually give them a chance to have better-paying jobs with more benefits and such, not just bare minimum jobs,” said senior Jordyn Poole.