Melba R. Santa

I never give up. I'm a very positive person, and I don't let negativity shut me down or influence what I'm doing. I have a goal, and I work for that goal in an honest way, and I keep humble. I always take people with me and work together with other people. I would say it's about learning to pick your tribe, the people that can work with you, and keeping a positive mindset. It's so easy to get affected by negativity and the environment, but I just keep myself positive, learn from the mistakes, and just keep moving on. Negativity can ruin whatever in life and whatever in the work environment, so I stay away from it.

The best career advice I ever received was to be humble and understand that you always have something new to learn. You can learn from anybody, it doesn't matter the position. Right now, I can learn from a teller, for example, or I can even learn from the guy that is cleaning the windows, because he can give me a great suggestion. I'm always open to learning new things, and I keep myself humble, very humble. That's something I always keep in mind since I was very young, and I got that advice. I keep it in my mind all the time because I can learn from everybody.

I would say just keep showing your skills, and don't play the victim role. I never play the victim role. I never say 'because I'm a woman, you're telling me that,' because that would put negativity in my mind already. Just do your work, show your best, and be confident in your knowledge. Be confident in what you can contribute, and people will see. Don't be negative, and don't start with those biases, like 'oh, I'm a woman, so they're not taking me into consideration.' Take that away from your mind, because there's a lot of people out there that they don't think that way anymore.

Honestly, the language barrier was a challenge for me. When I came here 14 years ago, I was bilingual, but I wasn't fluent enough to get into an industry like insurance and banking, where you have to understand perfectly what you're saying and what people are telling you so you can find a solution. My biggest challenge was that I didn't know anybody. I didn't have any center of influence, so I had to build everything from scratch, and the language was a big challenge. Sometimes people think that because I have an accent, I'm not as smart as others. That's a challenge, because you have to show and explain yourself when you don't have all those fancy words to express yourself. As for opportunities, I see every person that I know as someone I can collaborate with. I've been blessed to be in the community and know a lot of people, and those people introduced me to other people. For me, the fact that I have the skills to talk with everybody has opened doors for me.

Honesty is one of the top values for me. Being positive is also important - positive people, positive environment, and positive results. Courage matters to me as well. I value teamwork and work ethic. You need to have ethics, that's the only thing.