Jessica Valencia

I attribute my success to my family and resilience. I mentioned earlier that I didn't grow up in New York - I grew up in Mexico until I was young, but I was born in the States. My parents took me back to Mexico because they had the idea that growing up here, I might be misbehaved or they had this idea that growing up in the States makes you more mischievous. So I went to school there, and I came to the country not knowing the language - I mean, a U.S. citizen, but didn't know the language, so my story's a little bit backwards when it comes to my community, because a lot of people of my community came to the States. It's kind of hard for me to find that balance within my community and out of it, and I think having that identity of really embracing who I am - okay, my parents took me back, but I'm a U.S. citizen, so I might as well learn English, right? I think resilience will be the word. I know it's very used, but in every story, there is resilience in different ways, and I think resilience is my word for me. And my family, for sure.

The best career advice I ever received is: if you can't complain, pray. I think that's something I carry with me. If I complain about having a lot of work due, essays, or I was afraid to even apply for my senior college, one of my professors told me, okay, if you are able to complain and be afraid of it, you have time to pray. And it stays with me. Another piece of advice that really stuck with me came from my French professor. I failed one of my French classes I was taking in the summer, and maybe within 2 weeks, I was not doing the work. My professor told me, you know the language, it's very similar to Spanish, and when you first started, you were very excited about it. What happened? And then he told me, the only advice I can give you, because you were doing great, is to always go to any class with the same attitude you started with. And I passed my class. That also stayed with me throughout my career, my senior college, and even now, in other situations. It doesn't have to be really a class, but like networking, anything. Sometimes it's like you do it too much, and it's like, oh, it doesn't feel the same, it's just so repetitive, but the person receiving that information, it's not. So I always try to keep that same excitement, or to really value that person's time.

For young women entering my industry, I would say to speak up. I used to be very shy, even for this opportunity to be published on women stories of 2026, I was hesitant to do it, but when opportunities come to you, just do it. It doesn't matter who you have to talk to, or how the person looks, or even if you don't have the proper tools to do it, just do it. As women, and I come from a background of Indigenous people, sometimes it is hard to get through that, but I think removing those labels - okay, so I'm an Indigenous woman that was taken back to Mexico - I don't introduce myself like that. I'm just, this is what I can offer, and this is what I've done, and I speak up because of who I am, not because of my background. I'm not someone that wants to hold on to the idea of, because I was born this way, or I look this way, so I should receive this.

The biggest challenges in my field right now are that sometimes the resources are available for vulnerable communities, but they don't do it, because even though the resources are available, there are a lot of barriers that the system itself doesn't allow them to take, because they don't have certain documents in order to move forward.

In my work and personal life, loyalty is the most important value. I'm loyal to the work I do, I'm committed. And I think loyalty is one of the most precious values, because if you are not loyal, you cannot move forward to the next step. If you're loyal to going to the gym, so you're gonna lose weight. If you're loyal to reading, so you're gonna get better at writing and being more visually accurate, you know? I think loyalty is one of the things I try to practice as much as I can.