What opportunities have helped shape your career?

In 2016, I made history by becoming one of the youngest Executive Directors at Ferris State University! As a student who assisted in envisioning and creating the Center for [email protected] Studies, it has shaped my academic and professional experiences and to get here in order to help others, make history. There are a series of events that led me to this break. During my graduate school experience, I challenged the University of Michigan to create a new internship placement with the Wayne State Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies because they didn’t have placements tailored for my professional goals. By widening my networks strategically to challenge university policies, I lead the establishment of this new partnership. This has now flourished into three internship placements offered to both Wayne State University students and University of Michigan students. This is where my ambition went from helping students navigate to helping students in creating spaces for themselves in order to share their lived experiences and challenge the dominant narrative to not see them as an uncommon experience, but raise consciousness about the multitude of diverse leaders in our communities and campus.

What words of wisdom or advice do you live by?

“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.” ~Cesar Chavez~ Additionally, I live by the actions and words of my mentor who always asks me when I am trying to make a tough decision, “What does the community want? And how are you serving your community?”

What gives you confidence and empowers you to take action to create and achieve goals?

The centuries of Indigenous and Latinx leaders who have fought for our existence who have supported my path of getting to where I am. Furthermore, the pride in my parents and grandparents eyes to see the accomplishments I have created for myself and other students and finally the looks on students and their families’ faces when they have achieved their goal of finishing our programs, making beyond a step they thought they would, and on graduation day.