Yubelly Perez
Board Member

Originally from Bogota, Colombia Yubelly Perez holds a B.A in International Relations from Universidad del Rosario (Bogota). She and her husband came to U.S in 2003 seeking for Political Asylum. They found out about American Gateways (formerly known as PAPA) a Non-Profit in Austin who provides low cost legal services. Thanks to them they received legal representation and assistance through the immigration process, and in November 2004, INS granted them Asylum. After that, Yubelly and her husband were part of the Resettled Program at Caritas of Austin.

Yubelly came to U.S. without knowing the English language. Austin was a new environment to her; she also had to learn how to be part of a new community. In the next year she attended the ESL/Adult Education classes offered at ACC.

In 2006 she started to work as an Administrative Assistant and Sales Consultant in a Manufactured Home Community. While she was working there, she realized the needs of the immigrant community in Austin, the lack of assistance when the new immigrants, refugees and asylees are looking for a job or when they want to learn English.

In 2008 she found out about PeopleFund a Non-Profit in East Austin dedicated to create economic opportunity. She began to work as a Loan Administrator and started to learn and understand all the work that different Non-Profits in Austin do. In addition, Yubelly found out about the Caritas Community Advocacy Program, she realized through this program she could give back to one of the organizations once helped her; she applied and a few months ago she started to attend the training.