Ad Astra, Inc., 8701 Georgia Avenue Suite 808, Silver Spring, MD (2026)

09/14/2026

We talk about belonging like it is something handed to us. Claudia sees it differently.

Belonging is something we want to feel when we walk into a workplace, an establishment, a room full of strangers. In her telling, it also asks us to contribute to the space we want to feel it in.

🎙️ EP. 58 | Elena Petrova sits down with Claudia Maria Menendez, the Equity & Inclusion Officer for the City of Fort Collins, for a conversation about what happens when people are finally understood in their own language, and how belonging grows in the communities most often left out, something we both give and receive.

🎧 The full conversation is out now:
🔴 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dpid9rZw
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/rEE2w
⚫ Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/WZUEv
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/2Sy8I

09/11/2026

How do you know if you are reaching people, or just filing another translated PDF?

Claudia has a plain answer for any leader who wants to reach a community they keep missing. You find the line by being in community with folks. If you have never heard what people want from the people themselves, you keep aiming at an audience you only think you know. In this conversation, she gets into what it takes to move from translating information to actually including voices.

They also discuss:
🔸 Why belonging is a two-way street, something you receive and something you contribute to
🔸 The difference between translating information and actually making someone feel heard
🔸 What it costs to live in a language that is not fully your own
🔸 How a community built its own communication network when the official channels fell short

🎙️ EP. 58 | Elena Petrova sits down with Claudia Menéndez, the Equity & Inclusion Officer for the City of Fort Collins. Her path runs through executive leadership, public education, and international development. She holds degrees from CU Boulder and the University of Calgary, and she has spent years in community work across Central America and East Africa.

🎧 The full conversation is out now:
🔴 YouTube: https://youtu.be/aCXNaxakE1U
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/rEE2w
⚫ Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/WZUEv
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/2Sy8I

09/11/2026

September 11th

Remembering history also means learning from it.

Explore the history of 9/11 through interactive timelines, digital exhibitions, oral histories, and more here: https://www.911memorial.org/learn/resources

09/07/2026

What does it cost to be the only outsider in the room?

Claudia was in northern Uganda working with a nonprofit, supporting rural communities with cookstoves and agroforestry. She was also the person everyone noticed. On the street, people called her mzungu, the Swahili word for stranger, and she got by on smiles and gestures. In this conversation, she carries that lived experience into how a city learns to make room for people who are far from home.

We also talk about:
💥 Why belonging is a two-way street, something you receive and something you contribute to
💥 The difference between translating information and actually making someone feel heard
💥 What it costs to live in a language that is not fully your own
💥 How a community built its own communication network when the official channels fell short

🎙️ EP. 58 | Elena Petrova sits down with Claudia Menéndez, the Equity & Inclusion Officer for the City of Fort Collins, focused on equity-centered policy, language access, and community advocacy. Her career spans executive leadership, public education, and international development, with past roles as a Family Engagement Specialist, Spanish Literacy Teacher, and Cultural Mediator. She holds a master's in Education Equity and Cultural Diversity from the University of Colorado Boulder and a bachelor's from the University of Calgary.

🎧 The full conversation is out now:
🔴 YouTube: https://youtu.be/aCXNaxakE1U
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/rEE2w
⚫ Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/WZUEv
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/2Sy8I

09/07/2026

Today, we're celebrating Labor Day!

Do you know why Labor Day exists?
Most people view Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer, a time for backyard barbecues, sales, and a three-day weekend.

But the holiday wasn't born out of celebration. It was created out of a national crisis.

1894: The Pullman Strike. Following an economic downturn, the Pullman Palace Car Company slashed worker wages by nearly 30%. The catch? They refused to lower the rents in their company-owned town.

Desperate for fair treatment, 150,000 railway workers, led by union leader Eugene V. Debs, went on strike, bringing rail transit across the United States to a complete standstill.

The Climax: To break the protest, President Grover Cleveland dispatched federal troops to Chicago. What followed was a wave of violent clashes that left over 30 protesters dead and millions of dollars in rail damage.

The Political Pivot: Faced with intense public outrage and a crucial election on the horizon, the government needed to act fast to diffuse the tension. Just six days after the strike collapsed, Congress fast-tracked legislation to make Labor Day a federal holiday, a symbolic peace offering to the American workforce.

History isn't always pretty, but understanding where our traditions come from gives them real weight.

💡 Found this interesting? Share this post with anyone who loves a good history dive or needs a quick U.S. history lesson today!

09/03/2026

Picture a patient nodding along to a diagnosis she doesn't fully understand. No one in the room speaks her language, so she signs the form and hopes for the best. That's what a language gap looks like in real life.

"Language access" comes across as a checkbox. But in a hospital, a courtroom, or a public agency, this number is already inside your walls: 1 in 12 people in the US has limited English proficiency. 29.6 million of them.

Language access is when a mother hears her child's diagnosis in her own words, a defendant follows every minute of their own trial, a family understands the discharge instructions before they leave, not after they're back in the ER.

That's the work we do, every day. If it needs to happen inside your walls, let's talk.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2022; Chu et al., BMJ Quality & Safety, 2024.

09/02/2026

Language, belonging, and community

🎙️ EP. 58. In this conversation, Elena Petrova sits down with Claudia Maria Menendez, the Equity & Inclusion Officer for the City of Fort Collins, CO. They discuss what happens when people are finally understood in their own language, and how belonging grows in the communities most often left out, something we both give and receive.

👉🏽 Claudia Menendez is the City of Fort Collins' Equity and Inclusion Officer, focused on equity-centered policy, language access, and community advocacy. Her career spans executive leadership, public education, and international development, with past roles as a Family Engagement Specialist, Spanish Literacy Teacher, and Cultural Mediator. She holds a master's in Education Equity and Cultural Diversity from the University of Colorado Boulder and a bachelor's from the University of Calgary.

We also talk about:
🔸 Why belonging is a two-way street, something you receive and something you contribute to
🔸 The difference between translating information and actually making someone feel heard
🔸 What it costs to live in a language that is not fully your own
🔸 How a community built its own communication network when the official channels fell short

🎧 The full conversation is out now:
🔴 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dpid9rZw
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/rEE2w
⚫ Apple Podcasts: https://shorturl.at/WZUEv
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/2Sy8I

09/01/2026

We are currently seeking on-site interpreters for assignments in the Maryland area. If you speak Vietnamese or Twi, these roles are an excellent opportunity to use your language skills and support your local community.

You´ll provide in-person interpretation between English and the target language.

Requirements:
· Must be authorized to work in the U.S.
· Must be 18+ years old
· Ability to commute to Maryland for onsite assignments
· Willingness to complete a drug screening and background check

No prior interpreting experience? Not a problem; we offer free training and orientation sessions!

Apply now:
Vietnamese: https://lnkd.in/dYQbuXTj
Twi: https://lnkd.in/dEaUqegZ

Or send your resume to [email protected] and include the position you are applying for as the email subject line.

08/31/2026

August 31 is the International Day for People of African Descent.

It's a day to honor the cultural, social, economic, and political contributions of the African diaspora, and to recommit to eliminating discrimination in all its forms. This year's observance carries the theme "Expanding the Human Rights of People of African Descent," part of the Second International Decade for People of African Descent (2025–2034) and its call for recognition, justice, and development.

For us, this day sits close to the heart of our work. In a recent Connected Conversations episode, Sheriff Issaka, Founder of the African Languages Lab, reminded us that throughout history, when one group set out to oppress another, one of the first things they went for was the language. Taking a people's language has always been a way of taking their place in the world.

Which is why the opposite matters just as much. Making sure every person can understand and be understood, in their own language, is part of the long work of recognition and dignity this day honors. No language left behind. No person either.

To every community keeping their language alive, and everyone building so that no one is left out of the future.

Video source: EP. 55 with Sheriff Issaka - Connected Conversations Podcast.

08/28/2026

Most leaders are wary of anonymity. Kyle Venn thinks that caution is misplaced.

In our latest episode of Connected Conversations, hosted by Elena Petrova, we sat down with Kyle Venn, CEO of Yik Yak, for a conversation about what anonymity does to honesty. He argues that anonymity is a practical tool for honest feedback, whereby, by his account, most of what people share is constructive, and connects it to something every manager knows: people speak more freely when their name is off it.

After watching this episode, you will come away with a sharper way to think about the platforms your own community lives on, and a set of questions worth asking before you trust any of them.

Tune into the full episode with Kyle Venn:
🔴 YouTube: https://youtu.be/-HM4uQ2ebq0
🟢 Spotify: https://shorturl.at/tLUol
⚫ Apple Podcast: https://shorturl.at/7gueU
🔵 Amazon Music: https://shorturl.at/9Hzmu

About Kyle:
Kyle Venn is a tech entrepreneur and product leader with a computer science background from Northeastern University, currently CEO of Yik Yak, one of the most recognizable anonymous social platforms for college students. He previously held engineering and leadership roles at Vimeo, Intuit, and PayPal. As CEO, he is focused on moving social media beyond passive scrolling toward meaningful, real-world connection, introducing community-building features that help students find their people and build genuine belonging on campus.

Ad Astra, Inc.

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