Full Biography
Rachel Corley is currently a staff intern at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She assumed this role mid-January 2022.
In May 2021, she graduated as a double major with a B.A. in International Affairs with a concentration in Latin America and the Spanish Language and Literature with a minor in Latinx American and Caribbean Studies from James Madison University. She is currently applying to Master’s programs in both International Affairs and Latin American and Caribbean Studies to reach her professional goal of working in the U.S.-Mexico relations. She is bilingual in English and Spanish, and working to become proficient in Portuguese in her free time.
Rachel’s research and studies primarily center around gender-based violence, democracy, immigration, and human rights in Mexico. In her undergraduate studies, she researched variables that affect democratic erosion in Mexico through analyzing democratic institutions, corruption/clientelism/money in politics, populism, and non-state actors. In 2019, she completed a summer study abroad program in Buenos Aires, Argentina to improve her knowledge of the Spanish language and culture.
Her senior year she interned year-long with a local nonprofit named Way to Go to help low-income, working households in Harrisonburg-Rockingham improve their quality of life by assisting them with their transportation needs. She primarily worked as an interpreter and translator for Spanish-speaking clients. Rachel is passionate about bottom-up methods, and strives to make changes in her local community first.
