Ana Aristizabal

I attribute my success to the difficult moments I went through - those challenges didn't break me, they shaped me. My resilience has been key, along with the support of people who believed in me when I was struggling to believe in myself. When I got the opportunity with Unidos Now, when they believed in me, everything was new and I was starting over, but I learned to believe in myself. I'm always grateful to my organization because they helped me discover something I had deep inside me. I see them as mentors because while I'm working and trying to give the best of myself, I'm also learning - I'm learning from the families, I'm learning from the students. It's a gain for both sides. Success is not the result of a single achievement, it's the result of choosing to keep moving forward, even when life was really, really difficult for me.

The most meaningful advice I've received is that you cannot pull from an empty cup. For many years, I focused on taking care of everyone else while neglecting my own needs, and I learned that supporting others begins with taking care of yourself. My actual boss is always asking her employees that we have to take care of ourselves first, just to help others. We receive every single day a lot of difficult situations, and we're always trying to help families, help students, help parents, and sometimes we forget about ourselves. That advice encourages us to value ourselves and prioritize our well-being. I can tell people: you have to know your worth, and never allow anyone else to define it. That's something we should write really big in our mirrors, in our fridge, to keep it visible in our homes.

Know your worth, but never let anyone convince you that you are less than you are. There will always be people that doubt you, underestimate you, or try to define your future based on your circumstances - don't let them do it. Believe in yourself, invest in your education, and never stop growing. Education is the most important thing - it's something that nobody takes away from you. The biggest thing we could achieve is education. Most importantly, don't let anybody define you. Dream big - that's our biggest motto in our organization. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it.

The biggest challenge right now is the changes in the political and administrative field. Because we work with Latino communities, my families are going through a lot of different situations - they are losing their jobs, they have been deported. For me, that is a really, really difficult situation because as much as I want to help them, there are some instances that we can't help them. I feel identified because my biggest challenge 20 years ago was leaving my home country to start from nowhere in the United States, and finding that courage to leave the abusive marriage. I had to navigate different language, different cultures, by myself. When I see these families going through the same situations, I recognize that I was in an emotional, difficult moment, so I have to choose to be strong for them. It's a job that requires immense courage and self-discovery just to help them. Looking back, I realized that my challenges didn't break me, they shaped me, and that is what I want to help the people that are struggling right now.

Honesty is the first one, but my core values are faith, integrity, resilience, compassion, and service.