When Career, Passion and Purpose Finally Meet

Writing about myself is not easy at all, but if my story can inspire you to pursue a dream, here you have it; I’ll be an open book!…

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I was born in Colombia in a family of travelers. Still to this date we proudly call ourselves “gitanos” or gypsies. The travels were more like adventurers, but the gypsy joke stuck. My family was never afraid to take the next opportunity to advance, even if it meant moving to different countries.

I lived in Colombia, Ecuador, moved back to Colombia, then in the U.S. we lived in Chicago, Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Living in all of these places and going through the bitter-sweet journey of starting over at a different place at different stages of my life kept feeding my passion to learn about different communities, interacting with the humanity of the world and our ever-changing society.

During my early college years, I declared my major in Sociology. I fell in love with the human aspect of society, how communities formed and lived around the world. I was an activist and part of Students Working for Equal Rights or S.W.E.R., I was in Student Government Association (SGA), the head of the “Spirit Week” committee and formed an initiative with a group of friends called “Piles for Smiles” to bring clothes and school supplies to impoverished children in Colombia during one of my trips.

My Social Side kept growing in me.

While attending college, I took some semesters off to work for a marketing agency on a major brand account and had the chance to travel all around the U.S. for a national campaign working in concert tours, emceeing (live hosting) festivals and community events, sports events and, my favorite, kid’s events!

This job was my introduction to my career in communications and, of course, the use of a microphone. I had the chance to be in contact with the community, talk to them, interview them, bring them a good time and play games with the kids! (Ahhh! I get goose bumps when I think about it).

I found out I could be a voice for the community and it was my mission to bring them GOOD NEWS!

When it was time to get back to school and finish my degree I chose Mass Communication & Journalism, it only made sense, I was on a mission since then!

Immediately after being a grad I moved to Los Angeles to attend a journalism convention and ended up staying in L.A. for the West Coast beach and the California palm trees… plus the job at a TV Network.

The rest is this history that I am writing here on The Social Side. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!