Tell us about yourself?

 I am a driven, strong, analytical Latina, born in Mexico and raised in San Diego. I grew up undocumented, was raised by my grandparents, and am a first generation college grad. I love to travel, write poetry, dance salsa and bachata, and go to the movies with my partner. I am highly influenced by my Mexican roots and culture. I am a bicultural individual who connects with people through authenticity and loves hearing about the stories that make up a person. I am someone who believes in lifelong learning and seeks to understand how I can best help transform people’s lives by providing them peace of mind, in my line of work this relates to finances. I am fiercely passionate about helping individuals, specifically lower-income communities of color and Latina women, by dismantling myths around money and wealth. After graduating from UCLA in 2018 I came back to San Diego and am living with my partner and our puppy.

How did your undergraduate degree in the Spanish & Portuguese department help you in your career path?

My Spanish community and culture degree allowed me to learn about my own journey and roots on a deeper level. It allowed me to feel seen on a campus where I was a minority. The classes went beyond textbooks and bridged gaps to help me understand systemic problems in society that I had never understood. Once I had a deeper understanding of my roots, my community, and its needs I was able to identify how my degree in math could intertwine with my degree in Spanish as I looked for an ideal career.

From a young age, I noticed the power and the impact financial literacy could have on individuals. Without knowing it, growing up I was exposed to the lack of financial independence my parents had and its effects. As I graduated from university I realized I wanted to live a life where I could help others end the cycles of financial unfamiliarity that I endured in hopes of creating new cycles of financial independence and continuing to foster existing ones.

As for pinpointing a profession in the large landscape of finance, I wanted my career to be comprised of two things: Doing something which I love and helping others along the way. This is where my passion for helping my community and my interests in math intertwined and I started my journey to become a financial planner. Having such a diverse education helped me see finances through an intersectional lens that I believe most in the industry don’t. This intersectional and empathetic approach to finance is comprised of compassionate finance, holistic planning, accountable & authentic relationships, and financial literacy.

What career advice would you share with a current undergraduate student in the Spanish & Portuguese department?

  1. Don’t feel like you have to have everything figured out right when you graduate. You have the rest of your life to figure out a career, you can start one and realize it was not the perfect fit. Trust you intuition and focus on finding a career or a company that aligns with you values, because when you feel valued and your work feels meaningful, the specific career can be fluid. 
  2. Take advantage of you time in college to try as many different internships or jobs. The more exposure you get to different fields and career, the more you can cross of your list of unideal jobs. 
  3. Embrace your story and who you are as part of your career path. Own your story and weave it into who you are in networking and interviews. You’d be surprised how much authenticity resonates with others and this allows you to gauge if a company is truly the right fit for you.  Its easy to feel like you have to be a certain way or follow specific paths when working in certain industries (law, finance, etc.) but don’t put that pressure on yourself.

Share two interesting facts about yourself?

I was a premature baby. I loved sudoku growing up.