The World Bank Group
February 2021
Dear Ms. Maria Santiago-Valentin,
On behalf of the Women, Business and the Law team, we thank you for your contribution to the Women, Business and the Law 2021 report. Please find enclosed a Certificate of Appreciation as a token of our gratitude for your time and support of our research efforts. We especially appreciate that you generously participated during a challenging pandemic.
Women, Business and the Law 2021 is the seventh in a series of reports that provide objective measures of legal and regulatory barriers to women’s entrepreneurship and employment in 190 economies. Amidst a global pandemic that threatens progress toward gender equality, the report identifies barriers to women’s economic participation and encourages reform of discriminatory laws. This year, the study also includes important findings on government responses to the COVID-19 crisis and pilot research related to childcare and women’s access to justice. For more information, including a new data visualization tool, please visit our website at https://wbl.worldbank.org. The website allows for comparisons of the data at both the indicator and economy levels.
Contributions like yours are essential for ensuring the quality and accuracy of the data we collect and analyze. As such, we would be extremely grateful for your continued support of our ongoing efforts.
Thank you again for your valuable work and dedication to our project. We look forward to collaborating with you in the future!
Sincerely,
The Women, Business and the Law Team
The World Bank Group
1818 H St. NW, Washington DC 20433, USA
Recommendation from Lumina Damatics, June 12, 2018
Maria Santiago-Valentin provided a Native Reader review of the second edition of Conectados by Marinelli and Fajardo for Cengage Wadsworth through Lumina Datamatics. The Native Reader review of this text involved reviewing and correcting spelling, grammar, and punctuation of non–English language text; correcting inconsistencies in capitalization, number style, abbreviations, and sequence of anything numerical or alphabetical in non–English language text; checking non–English language text for accuracy and common usage for the country or area in which the language is spoken; checking pronouns of non–English language text only, ensuring that all have clear antecedents; marking for elimination of any phrases, art, and photos/photo specifications that are culturally stereotypical and/or potentially offensive to any regional language–specific readers; and rewriting awkward and confusing sections of non–English language text only.
Sincerely,
Annie Beck
Manager of Editorial Services
Workshop Evaluation – Trans Youth Forum –May 20, 2017
Rutgers University, Livingston Campus
Workshop: Mindfulness for Relaxation and Wellbeing Presenters: Maria Santiago-Valentin
Number of attendees: 15
Number of Evaluations: 13
Average of responses: 1 indicates “strongly disagree” and 5 indicates “strongly agree”
Workshop was informative 4.3
Workshop addressed relevant issues 4.7
Workshop was well organized 4.3
I’d recommend it to others 4.5
I would attend a follow up 4.4
What Changes Would You Make?
I will try to meditate more
Practice mindfulness (more often) stay in moment
Trying to practice mindfulness regularly to change/increase executive functioning
I would hold it in a room with a lower ceiling and more comfortable seating
I will try to turn stress into relaxation
Mindfulness
Be mindful
Could not hear speaker: too soft spoken & background hum in the room – too cold
Continue to add more mindful moments to my day
Begin morning practice
In “compiling” an anchor in my meditative practice
Additional Comments or Suggestions
The speaker needs to be a tad louder - it was difficult to hear at times
I look forward to seeing her in future forums
Good Job :)
Thank you :)
Setting was bad acoustically - too big (atrium). This was not the fault of the instructor
Feedback (from Moderator)
Mindfulness practices: Gratitude + Compassion + has educational impacts + think 3 positive thoughts each day
“When I first tried mindfulness it was difficult to focus and not yet distracted. Eventually with practice I was more successful”
“The concept of labeling my distracted thoughts as “THOUGHT” and then moving on was helpful. I liked it”
Cross County Clinical and Educational Services, New Jersey Maria is an excellent Bilingual French Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultant. Her report is absolute thorough. She takes her job very seriously and helped us out with a RUSH assessment. I look forward to working with her in the future. Usha Ramachandran Science Teacher at CARTERET PUBLIC SCHOOLS I have known Maria Santiago for about two years now. We worked together at Marylawn of the Oranges. Maria is a very resourceful teacher who can engage and teach students of all ages; may it be middle school or high school. I was new to teaching when I joined Marylawn. She helped me settle into my new job. She is indeed a very resourceful and talented teacher. I ensure that she will be a great asset to any institution that she works for. Usha worked directly with Maria at Marylawn of the Oranges Academy Christine H. Lopez, Ed.D. Supervisor, Title I and Basic Skills at New Brunswick Board of Education Mrs. Santiago’s designed interesting, differentiated lessons that provided a clear links to students’ lives and previous learning. Always willing to assist, Mrs. Santiago’s calm, systematic, and extremely patient style helped her to achieve an excellent rapport with students. She understands the “big picture” of the school an integral part of implementing the mission. Christine H. Lopez managed Maria at Marylawn of the Oranges Academy Sylvia Jauregui Video Producer,New Media Producer,Social Media Marketing,Branding,SEO,SMO & One Man Band Journalist/Videographer/Editor I have the privilege of working with Maria. She is a great bilingual writer, managing both English and Spanish. Maria is very committed with her community; her work is always on time in a proper and effective way. In addition, she is always ready and available to complete her tasks. She is a great asset for any company or organization. Sylvia managed Maria at Elizabeth Inside Out Mr. Joseph Cirigliano Mrs. Santiago-Valentin did a stellar job organizing and planning a lesson that required students to be intellectually involved in the lesson. Her lesson incorporated several activities that rehearsed content that was previously taught. Mrs. Santiago-Valentin did a stellar job managing transitions in her lesson. There were multiple segments planned and the movement from one segment to the next was seamless. Mrs. Santiago-Valentin's planning of activities and diligent assessment of their understanding of the content made student misbehavior relatively obsolete. Ann Shapiro- Executive Director The Connecticut College Storytelling Center Ms. María Santiago approached me about using storytelling to help her students in their Spanish Studies and found two other teachers from her school to take part in the storytelling program. If it weren't for Ms. Santiago's initiative, this program would not have taken place. Ms. Santiago is an energetic and creative teacher. Ms. Santiago took full advantage of my residency in her class. I told the students a story, she created a Spanish vocabulary list from words used in the story. Her students participated in role-playing and discussing the story in Spanish. The students learned to retell the stories in Spanish. We videotaped the students for broadcasting them on the local access cable television channel. All this was above and beyond what she was expected to do in her class. Clark Public Library Ms. Santiago and I organized a successful French Language film series between the Middle School and the Clark Public Library. A series of four French Language films were screened in 2009 and 2010. The series served as extra credit for Ms. Santiago's students and was also open to any library patron who was interested in attending.
Dr. Christopher P. Clouet Ms. Santiago has developed Bilingual Coloring books made by the 7th and 8th graders and sent to kindergarten students. Her classes presented projects about Spanish Speaking Countries for the Hispanic Heritage Month assembly. Her students contributed to the celebration of the Three Kings Day Fiesta when her 7th and 8th graders created crowns for the Dual Language pre-k students. With the help of the Connecticut Storytelling Center, she works with her students to create bilingual drama presentations for younger children. In addition, she worked on the link - in both languages- to the Spanish class at the middle school web page. She is a professional of many talents. Not only is a highly fluent bilingual individual, she is very creative. John A. Scott Iowa Department of Education Former Iowa Title I State Director 2012-2015 Foreign Language Specialist in the 21st Century International School in Beijing, China Ms. Santiago was one of the Co-founders of CURE (Community United for the Renaissance of Education). CURE is a bilingual, parent-teacher community group that supports the public school system of New London, Connecticut. Ms. Santiago helped organized car-caravan parades to the public library, community forums, translated public events and even helped published the CURE newsletter. She has been an outspoken defender of not only the bilingual programs of our district but for multi-lingual education at all levels...given that she is fluent in English, Spanish and French. Gregory Farlow, MBA, 7th year Former World Language Department Chair New London, CT Currently retired Ms. Santiago is a caring individual who always has a smile. In departmental meetings she will not shy away from introducing and discussing issues. However she is not an agitator. She is genuinely interested in improving the school efforts and will offer solution to problems. Ms. Santiago is a team player focused on the improvement of education. She has assisted in the coordination of the curriculum so all teachers cover the same material at approximately the same time. Due to the demographics in our town, great strides needed to be made to involve parents. Maria has stepped forward to join a number of neighborhood organizations and volunteered her personal time to promote the welfare of the families of New London. Her efforts have resulted in better relations with the students and parents she has contact with.
