New Class of Urban Grape Award Winners Bring Wide Perspective to Newest Opportunity
Last fall, the second pair of winners of the BU Food & Wine Urban Grape Wine Studies Award for Students of Color were announced: Tatiana Glenn and Victor Medina.
As winners, Glenn and Medina are enrolled in MET’s four-level Certificate in Wine Studies program, starting with Level 1: Fundamentals of Wine Studies. They will also commence a series of paid internships designed to given them a rounded perspective on the beverage and hospitality industry: first, with Urban Grape, they will each develop their retail experience; then, they’ll learn the world of wholesale via the Norwood-based major wine and spirits distributor MS Walker; they’ll get insight into the hospitality side of things with the award’s latest restaurant partner, Row 34; finally, the pair will work a full harvest internship with the vintners at Ross Road Custom Crush to learn all aspects of winemaking.
Tatiana Glenn and Victor Medina are the most recent recipients of the Urban Grape Wine Studies Award for Students of Color.
Representatives from the Urban Grape lauded Glenn and Medina in their announcement, saying, “We want to acknowledge just how far Tatiana and Victor have traveled—emotionally and physically—to be here with us this year.”
Glenn is a native of California’s San Luis Obispo County, itself a haven for the wine trade. Her dream, she says, is to open a Black-owned winery, although as Urban Grape officials remarked, “The irony is not lost on any of us that she had to leave wine country to find access to the wine industry.”
For the Mexican-born Medina, the wine business runs in the family. He discovered the rich wine history of his native country when his sister Kenya and brother-in-law Max opened Tozi Imports, a Woburn-based wine import company with proud ties to Urban Grape. Victor aims to use his finance background and newfound passion to help expand Tozi, and bring Mexican wine to more areas of the US.
Now in its second year, the Urban Grape Wine Studies Award for Students of Color is an effort to bring greater equity and representation to the world of wine through opportunities designed to provide direct support and mentorship in the beverage and hospitality industry. Founded by BU Certificate Program in Wine Studies alum TJ Douglas and wife Hadley Douglas, owners of Boston’s South End wine retailer Urban Grape, the scholarship nurtures professional growth for individuals from communities that have historically been marginalized from the wine field.
The application deadline for the 2022-2023 year is March 15, 2022 – learn more here.