Working toward a criminal justice degree, Paula Zanahuria-Santana needed to devote 200 hours to an internship at the San Diego County Public Defender’s Office. It was supposed to last six months. Instead, she stayed a year and three months and estimates she tripled the hours she needed for credit as an investigative intern.
“It’s a fun job. I couldn’t leave,” she says with a big smile. “There are some cases you’ve been working on for over a year and you want to see the end of it.”
And she says the people she worked with became a second family to her and inspired her to pursue that field of law.
“After I saw all the passion that theses attorneys had for this job, then I knew I had to do it as well,” she says.
Zanahuria-Santana, 23, of Chula Vista was honored Tuesday at the County Board of Supervisors meeting when she was selected as Volunteer of the Month for the Public Defender’s Office.
“Oh, she’s amazing. I wish she’d never leave,” says Gabriela Reynolds, supervising investigator for the Public Defender’s Office. “She’s been a tremendous asset to our office. She has always gone above and beyond for anything we ever asked of her.”
She did support work in the office for attorneys such as obtaining criminal, medical or school records, and conducting interviews in Spanish and translating for the office. Reynolds said she always trusted Zanahuria-Santana to complete any assignment given to her and to be professional.
Zanahuria-Santana just graduated from San Diego State University in August with a double major in criminal justice and finance. She will be completing her internship next week and plans to look for a job after that. She says she hopes to start up a small business at some point to support herself as she goes through law school.
“My life dream is to become a public defender,” she says. “In 10 years, I’m going to be doing it.”
Volunteering with the County of San Diego is an opportunity to give back to your community, or gain valuable job training. Volunteer service also helps to conserve taxpayer dollars. In the Fiscal Year 2013/2014 Volunteer Report, it shows the County put 31,663 volunteers to work which provided a value to the County of nearly $39 million.
Learn more about volunteer opportunities with a County Department or Agency.
