Cultural Care Au Pair is thrilled to announce our recipient for the 2018 Au Pair of the Year award: Melanie Ventura!
Melanie’s home country is Mexico – but here in the United States, she considers Winchester, MA her second home. She’s lived with her host family in Winchester for a year and a half, and has spent every possible moment of her time here traveling, learning, growing and making an incredible difference in peoples’ lives.
Throughout her time in the U.S., her host family and their extended family have truly come to love Melanie. Her host children look up to her as a big sister and a mentor – and it’s no wonder why. Melanie has spent time volunteering with Cradles to Crayons, a local non-profit organization we work with closely here at Cultural Care. She also used her beautiful artistic talent to create custom illustrations in return for donations, resulting in over $5,000 to help those impacted by the devastating earthquakes back in her home country of Mexico.
Through her selfless acts of charity, Melanie has shown children in her community that everyone can do something to impact the world in a positive way. It makes our hearts melt to hear that one of Melanie’s host children now donates part of his allowance to the homeless – no doubt because he was inspired by our 2018 Au Pair of the Year.
Melanie is so much more than a leader in philanthropy – she’s also a treasured leader in the Cultural Care community. As part of our Ambassador Program, Melanie goes above and beyond to support other au pairs, helping them as they work through homesickness and navigate what can be an overwhelming experience at times.
“We believe that this program makes the world a better place,” says Natalie Jordan, Senior Vice President of Cultural Care. “Meeting someone like Melanie and learning about all the things she has done to impact her family, her community here in Massachusetts and the citizens of Mexico inspires every single one of us.”
We’re so thankful that Melanie’s host family decided to nominate her for this prestigious award – and we invite you to read their essay on why Melanie deserves to be Au Pair of the Year here. We’re also excited to share that this year, because Melanie lives so close to the Cultural Care Boston office, we were able to celebrate and inform Melanie of her win at a surprise party!
Be sure to check out this video that shows Melanie’s reaction, as well as all the details and attendees of this very special event. Congratulations again to our 2018 Au Pair of the Year!
