Cali, is Colombia’s third largest city and center for sugar and coffee industry, a fun filled nightlife and interesting historic center. But we have a piece of Cali here that is a valuable asset to our World Languages Department. Dr. Julia Patino, she is an eminent scholar and also an interesting professor who takes all of her duties seriously, but has fun all at the same time.

Patino came to Dillard with a background in Spanish receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from a college in her home country. Next she received her Master’s degree from the University of New Orleans and finally her Doctorate from Tulane University both in the area of Spanish and Latin American Literature.

Two years before Patino came to the United States, before being laid off, she was an executive secretary at a pipeline company. But with her steadfast perseverance in school and desire to become a professor she worked hard and has withstood the test of time. One interesting aspect about her is that while in Colombia, Patino was working during the day but at night her work was far from over, she was a student. And she excelled in every aspect.

Patino has been teaching for 20 years. And little did she know that the same institutions in which she continued her education would be where she would be teaching one day, enriching the lives of many and making many students culturally open-minded to continuing their education in a foreign language. Patino has taught at; Tulane University, New Orleans, LA ;Loyola University, New Orleans,LA; and the University of New Orleans in Lousiana and finally at Dillard University.

And Dillard has been a perfect fit for her. Patino believes there is always room for improvement in the World Language Department and with the students. “What I’d like better is that students have more contact hours with the language lab,” Patino said.

Patino believes that students should be exposed and take the time out to be globally concerned about other cultures.On a closer note in coming to New Orleans, she disliked it at first because of th humidity, but in the end she has had an acute affection for the culture-filled city. “I now consider New Orleans a second home,” Patino. Patino has also been very involved in the multi-cultural communities of New Orleans helping translate for families in a program called FACES, which is a program sponsored by Children’s Hospital.

She is also a writer. She has written articles in Latin American magazines about Latin American women writers. One article for example is La mujer en la literatura del mundo hispanico, published by Instituto literario y Cultural Hispanics.

She has also represented Dillard reading papers in Madrid, Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Acapulco, Mexico, Los Angeles, Ca. and she will be also reading for Dillard this summer as well in New York.And often as others may find the time for leisure reading, catching a movie, and dancing or a hobbie of choice. Patino hardly has time for either. She is a care giver for her two elderly parents, outside of teaching and attending workshops. But something she does enjoy is cooking. ” I enjoy watching cooking shows learning something new to cook for my family for special occasions,” Patino said.

Although she may be the opposite of others, she is a role model for most. She has exposed her students to the Spanish language and she has prepared them for the world, and in leaving her mark on the World Language Department at Dillard she wants to be remembered as a hard working professor that has earned everything she has, and takes nothing for granted.