I look at the person I have become and I think to myself, how did I  end up here? I can recall two experiences that shaped my future.

First Experience:

My first experience was when I was in 8^th grade, debating whether or not to attend a public school that was only two blocks from home, or a private Jesuit high school near my parent’s sort. Please keep in mind my parents had no clue of my dilemma. It’s actually quite funny how I made this decision.

I still remember I was registering for classes at the public middle school, and English teacher said, “Hey Kiara you should register for AP classes,” and I replied, “Oh okay, no idea what they are but okay.” As I was on the computer, I had a feeling and told myself, “Man this doesn’t feel right, I don’t want to go to this school and be with the same people, what’s the point? Besides I feel that this school is too big.” A couple of days later I saw a flyer about a new school opening around the corner of my parents’ store in Minneapolis. I looked at the flyer and I had a good feeling about this school, so I dragged my dad to all the informationals about the school. Next thing I know I had made my parents sign all the papers to enroll. I was officially enrolled at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in the Twin Cities for fall 2007. I was part of the first graduating class. I graduated as one of the top students in my class and with four years of corporate experience. The mentors and friends I had gained at this school, influenced my decision to leave Minnesota to purse a college education in a Jesuit institution to study business in the best place in the world, the Silicon Valley. This brings up my second experience that impacted my life, going to college.

Second Experience:

Making the decision to move to California not knowing anyone or having family was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. I made this decision because I followed what my heart was saying. My heart was telling me to take a leap of faith, to go for it even if I had to take out a loan. So I went for it, I moved to California. A taxi picked me up at the hotel I was staying in near San Jose, and we made two pit stops. One was to Bed-Bath-and-Beyond to pick up my dorm items and second stop was to Santa Clara University.

At the time it seemed very normal to move in a taxi to the dorms. I’ve now discovered that a lot of the things I do seem very normal to me but others would say it’s crazy or naïve. Once I step back and actually see what I did, I always surprise myself and agree with what others say, “Yes I was crazy!” haha.

Moving to California did prove to be a huge challenge as I was unable to predict any of the challenges I soon found myself facing. I am proud to say, that I was able to hurdle all of the obstacles that was thrown in front of me, whether or not I was able to succeed the first time or not, I continued to fight. I did everything to overcome the obstacles and I would keep going with scrapes, sweat and tears. The most important thing I learned about myself is that I never stopped. If I ever did fall to my knees, I would say to myself, “I just can’t do it, I can’t go over that hurdle there, I just can’t go over it.” Every time I felt like this, I would always come across amazing people who would grab me by the hand and say, “Kiara that’s not the only way to go through the hurdle.”

Now, as a senior I know that I didn’t complete this journey (college) alone rather I did it with a whole group of people behind me, rooting for me. It’s as if I was in a track and field race doing hurdles and the fans were cheering me on screaming, “You can do it Kiara, you can finish, you most definitely don’t have to be first or do it with flying colors, but finishing is all you have to do!”

I guess what I am trying to say is this,

I made two decisions in my life that so far have shaped me to be the individual that I am today. I decided which high school I wanted to attend and I decided what university I wanted to go to. If it weren’t for those two experiences, I wouldn’t have come across the fellowship as a junior.

Global Social Benefit Fellowship:

The GSBF program opened my eyes to career opportunities that still revolved around business and serving a community. The fellowship made me consider working for a social enterprise or even working abroad in another country.

This fellowship made me realize that I love working with other cultures. I love getting out of my comfort zone and learning how other people solve problems. That is why as a senior I am still trying to figure my piece in the puzzle, I am going with what my heart is telling me to do which is to go out there and learn from the best of the best so that one day I can give back. After I conducted market field research with Ilumexico. I realized that I was fascinated by all the data and creating sense of it was a challenge, but I loved it. I love it because I knew at the end of the day what I was doing something was going to improve someone’s life. The possibility that I could apply my skills that I learned abroad to a real job and work for a fortune 500 company in order to improve the livelihood of people at a local or global scale is amazing! With all the knowledge I have accumulated so far at Cristo Rey, Santa Clara University and through the fellowship, are all skills that I want to use for a greater good. In the short-run I am interested in looking for a career in market research but I am also open to relocating anywhere. Ever since high school I acquired a Spanish saying that describes my experiences: “A donde punte la chancla” Wherever the shoe points is where I am going. I am uncertain on where my future is leading me, and that both excites me and scares me. After this fellowship I realized that the sky is the limit on where I can go and do.

This summer as I worked in rural Mexican communities, I found my experience to be one of the most memorable and rewarding summers.

It was incredible working along the side of people who are so  passionate about their jobs and simultaneously living and breathing the mission of the social enterprise. In a nutshell I was very impressed by the work ethics that employees in Ilumexico had. I was impressed by the way they went about brainstorming and going step-by-step in making sure that the solution that was going to be implemented was well thought out. Secondly, I’ve never experienced a professional environment that was so communal.  For example every day during lunch time almost all the employees got together in one big table and talked and joked around while enjoying a meal. It was the best, because you could really see the bond that they had amongst themselves.  Also during work hours they really weren’t serious all the time, they made sure work was both fun, and productive. I’ll admit there some days when I walked into the office feeling cranky because I woke early and didn’t get enough sleep or I was flustered by the metro ride there. The thing that always made my day was when my coworkers would sing to songs off the top of their lungs.

The best part off experiencing all this in Mexico City, was that I discovered that work environments like these actually exists out there. It’s exciting because I hope one day I get to work with individuals like employees from Ilumexico. I’m not sure where I will be heading in life after graduation but it’s nice to know that a place this exists out there. This was my experience in the city.  As I traveled with my partner to two different states, two stories stood out.

First story – Based in Oaxaca

We traveled for almost two hours in car to reach a community. Let me tell you it was not the smoothest ride. If we were lucky the roads were paved smoothly but most of the times the roads were covered with rocks and I always caught myself praying that the tires of the car wouldn’t pop as we went over sharp rocks! When we finally reached a community and interviewed almost fifteen customers, one story stood out to me.  It was a story by a man who was in his late 50s or 60s and we asked him for his feedback about the company and he said the following in Mazateco (One of the indegenious languages in Oaxaca) “Can you please tell the guy who brought these products, I say thank you! I’ve asked the government for many years that I wanted light in the community and no one has paid attention.  It’s been over 15 years that I’ve insisted, and I finally have light because of Ilumexico, tell him that I send him many thank yous!”  As a representative of Ilumexico, I’ve never been so proud to have represented a company that actually made a difference in someone’s life.  It was an incredible feeling that till this day words can’t describe how I felt.

Second story – Based in Campeche

We were interviewing the last community in Campeche, we were talking to a client and when we asked her, “So if Ilumexico offered other solar products, what would you want?” She replied, “You know the only thing we need in life is water and light.” This phrase took me by surprised, because even though this lady lived in the middle of nowhere and had a house that was super tiny and looked run down she had no complaints about life. She was grateful for what life had brought her. She was happy, and that’s an important lesson that western countries need remind themselves, that the simplest things in life are taken for granted, like a roof over our head, light, water, having a meal and having access to food. I feel that many times we take things for granted and it’s unfortunate that one way in which we notice how good our life is, is by traveling to another country or going away from home.

One of the main things I learned from this trip is the value of knowing a second language. As I worked along the side of a translator for almost two weeks, it was mind blowing to see how our work dynamic was.  Picture this, I would ask the questions in Spanish, Lety (our translator) would say them in Mazateco in order for the customers to understand. Customers would then respond in Mazateco and then Lety would tell me in Spanish what the customers said.  During interviews I sometimes caught myself taking a step and seeing the big picture.  What I saw was beautiful, here I was speaking in Spanish and connecting with customers in a different language and feeling welcomed.

I think knowing the native language helped me comprehend the culture, it helped me really understand peoples perspectives and really get to know people at a personal level. Even knowing the slang words or understanding jokes with double meanings people welcomed us more, we were treated differently. I felt included. It was interesting because I brought an outsider’s perspective but yet I had access to an insider’s perspective.

I spent most of my childhood in the Lower West Side of Chicago, Pilsen, where I was surrounded by cultura or culture. I say cultura because Pilsen is a place where you will find gorgeous murals all over the neighborhood, mosaics, authentic Mexican dishes, Mexican snacks like raspados, churros, homemade ice-cream, corn on the cob and the list goes on. You will see a lot of activities happening whether its people playing soccer, baseball, or basketball. If no one is out and about, later in the afternoon you will see families sitting in front of their homes talking and keeping an eye on the kids as they play in the streets.

One of my early childhood memories was when I was five years old.   I remember following my mom all day as she sold gold door-to-door while carrying a small red notebook in hand. I was always curious as to why she would carry that notebook, I realized that it was where she kept the tabs of her customers and wrote down small notes and numbers. So one day I asked her if she could buy me a small notebook like hers.  Soon enough I was writing numbers on my notebook too, just like my mom would.  She taught me how to count and write the numbers before I started school.  By following her as she conducted her business little did she know that she was exposing me to the world of business.  As my mom managed to save enough money to open her own clothing shop on 18th st in Chicago; the shop became my second home.  I would help my mom organize the merchandise, and observed how she developed relationships with her customers.  Later as we moved out of state to Minnesota, she opened another shop.  This time we were not surrounded by a community of predominantly Mexicans but a diverse group of people such as Africans, Ecuadorians, Blacks, Whites and those who practiced Islam.  As early as the age of 9 or 10 I was translating for mom and her new clientele.  I remember that I wouldn’t know how to translate certain words in Spanish or English so I would look it up in a Spanish-to-English dictionary.  Slowly but surely I expanded my vocabulary in both languages.  At the age of 10 I started learning how give great customer service and speak to customers from diverse backgrounds.  As the years passed, my mom’s shop became focused on the Quinceanera business. All through high school, my mom’s shop continued being my second home.

During high school I met the most inspiring and amazing people.   One of those inspiring individuals was Ms. McCann. It was towards the end of my junior year in Cristo Rey that I was talking to my religion teacher, Ms. McCann, who I asked, “Do you really think I can go to college?” and she responded, “Absolutely! Are you kidding me Kiara? You have the potential to attend any school you want.  As a Georgetown and Harvard alumni I know you have what it takes to be sitting in those classrooms.” As she was talking, I was in disbelief that a person who knew me less than a year was telling me all this.  I was skeptical at first of her answer, but I soon became convinced that I could actually attend a four year university.

Someone who is also very dear to me is Noi, who was my supervisor at Medtronic, Inc. for two years.  I started working for Noi during my summer in junior year of high school, where I grew to be her right-hand.  I helped her with the logistics of career fairs.  Entering the office, fairly timid, Noi met me at a very important phase in my life. I was at the point where I had to see what colleges I wanted to apply to.  As I developed a friendship with her, I started seeing her not only as my supervisor but also as mentor and a big sister.  She was one of the people who pushed me apply to out-state-universities, she slowly but surely convinced me to apply outside of the Midwest.  She saw me as her little sister and wanted nothing but the best for me.  She saw I had potential to grow as an individual being away from home.  When the time came I started applying to schools all over the U.S.  and through the process of elimination I chose Santa Clara University.  I was in torn between two schools, St. Mary’s in Notre Dame and SCU.  I kept looking and looking at each of their mission statements and all I remember was thinking, well SCU really emphasizes in educating the whole person and giving back.   This was the deal breaker because it was people like Ms. McCann and Noi who gave so much to her students and expected nothing in return.  Noi took the time to train me to survive in a professional environment and went out of her way to mentor me and take me under her wing when she didn’t even have to do any of that.  It is people like them that have inspired to give back to communities whether it is local or international.

With that in mind, I entered college and in my sophomore year I applied to be a Global Fellow. I was accepted and had the opportunity to work in India for the business arm of Destiny Foundation/Reflection. Myself and another peer were assigned to implement two products and channel them to the U.S. markets. After being there for six weeks, I confirmed my passion I had for women empowerment as well as helping others with their businesses. The knowledge and experienced I had gained while working in various internships came in handy when I was giving advice on how to better a small business. Most importantly I learned how much of difference someone could make in small non-profit business. I had an amazing time working with the women who created these beautiful saree tote bags, who at the end of the six weeks became my sisters.

That is why when I came across the Global Social Benefit Fellowship, I knew I had to apply because it involved serving and helping others become sustainable through a social enterprise.

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