I have always known that I wanted to pursue a career in music, and just never knew what structure that would take until recently. I am currently a senior studying Recorded Music with a double major in Art History and have never been more sure of what I wanted to do. The music industry is so wide, and since the pandemic hit, I had to pivot into more of the media sphere, working in advertising, social media marketing and management, and brand development. I spent some time through my academic career discussing the impact of media on young people, how we can harness it for good, and how important representation and inclusion is in the images that we see ourselves and that we show others. Growing up as a young Latina in Miami I didn't have a lot of representation of myself in the media until recent years, and I think it is the duty of those that create art to also allow for platforms of inclusion to arise. Art History started out as more of a hobby for me and something that I was just interested in. Until very recently, I only planned on getting a minor in Art History, but it was in classes that I also developed an appreciation for the impact that art has throughout histories, and got more involved in new technologies like NFTs. As my career has started growing my interests have refined into live event spaces like galleries and venues. I believe in being able to bring together people in the form of some artistic endeavor or another, and to allow them to share in a camaraderie that wasn't achievable otherwise. I have also taken an abundance of classes in childhood and adolescent mental health studies, where I have been able to learn about the impact of multiple things in childhood. Growing up in an underprivileged community, I learned the importance of music in particular in growing community. We would celebrate and join around dishes of wherever our families came from, and these are some of my most precious memories. Through my classical training I have met friends that I still keep in touch with, friends that I otherwise would not have made and who have lifted me up in ways I couldn't be more grateful for. I strive to lift communities in the same way.

It was the arts that first inspired me. I was 7 years old when I asked for my very own violin, and my mother, who knew nothing about music, scraped together enough to buy me one and get me lessons so that I could learn. Through my years at magnet art schools, I continued with music (eventually switching to cello) and was able to make friends, go to schools and extracurricular programs, and so much more because of that first ask for a violin. Having a career in the arts is important to me because not only did I make life-long friends within the artistic spheres that I was apart of, but also because I saw the positive change that it made in other people's lives. I had a lot of friends who came from underprivileged backgrounds, who were struggling to find their footing, and our identities, as first generation americans, and it was the arts and specifically in my case music, that allowed us to find common ground despite our endless amounts of differences. I want to be able to give those opportunities to others in a positive way for their own careers and stories. I want to be able to give the opportunities that I had, and that my mom and I worked so hard for together to others, and maybe give them the ability to have a career surrounded by something they love doing rather than something they took up just to make money or support their families.

I think the best way to live a long, healthy life is to do what it is makes you happy. I feel like a lot of people focus on things and forms of validation (like eating healthy to "look good" or making a lot of money and overworking to "seem rich") that they do not focus on the things that make themselves happy all the time. If it's traveling, you should travel. If it's something different, then that should be what you are focusing on in your life in order to feel constantly fulfilled and happy.

I'm really excited about the direction that metaverse technology is headed in. There are many people that are now developing different servers that will make education and work endlessly more accessible to many people around the world and it is with programs like these that the direction in which accessibility will move.