Sandra Cifuentes

My mom has always told me, 'hay que hecharle ganas,' which means you have to give it your all. She's told me that throughout my life and during my healing process with my stroke. I admired my mom's strong work ethic from my very first job. When my manager hired me, she said, 'Your mom, I highly respect her. She's a hardworking employee, and she's really the reason why we're giving you a chance.' That has always stuck with me. My success has come more through experience and on-the-job learning rather than formal degrees. I've held positions that normally would require high degrees, but I've gotten the position with same pay, if not better, just because of my background and experience. Someone with all these degrees can be green and not really know the banking industry, the banking culture, or the common sense of a business. I want to be the voice of the voiceless. Women need to be empowered, they need to find their voice, and they need to find their confidence.

My mom has always told me, 'hay que hecharle ganas,' which means you have to give it your all. She's told me that throughout my life, and during my healing process with my stroke, she's told me that also. When I was in high school, I interviewed a Latina columnist in the San Jose Mercury News, and she kept saying, 'I want to break that ceiling, I want to break through that ceiling and not let what I am define me.' Sometimes I think about that. My mom has been very inspiring. At times, she's been the only woman working for a company, and that had to be not the easiest in the 70s when there weren't protections to protect women against all the harassments and things that happened at work.

I want to be the voice of the voiceless. Women need to be empowered, they need to find their voice, and they need to find their confidence. I feel like women need to know that you can break that ceiling. Don't let what you are define you. School isn't necessarily for all of us. I've held positions that normally would require high degrees, but I've gotten the position with same pay, if not better, just because of my background and experience. Someone with all these degrees can be green and not really know the banking industry, the banking culture, or the common sense of a business. My mom has been very inspiring. At times, she's been the only woman working for a company, and that had to be not the easiest in the 70s when there weren't protections to protect women.

As a banking professional and a mother, my journey has been shaped by both career and life experiences, but surviving a stroke one year ago truly transformed my perspective. My faith in God gave me a renewed sense of purpose and it strengthened my appreciation for every aspect of my life. I want to be the voice of the voiceless. In my family, there's been some unfortunate tragedies with domestic violence. My mom lost her oldest sister to domestic violence years ago, and I lost a cousin to domestic violence. I feel like women need to be empowered, they need to find their voice, and they need to find their confidence. My mom has always told me, 'hay que hecharle ganas,' which means you have to give it your all. My son is my life. When you do have a child that's in sports and an athlete, their sports kind of become your life.