Editor’s note: “My Story” is where business executives share their personal and professional backgrounds and journeys that have made them who they are, in their own candid words, from the challenges of confronting stereotypes to the glory in overcoming them. Amid calls for racial justice, we can only make real change with greater awareness and understanding — and the ability to learn from each other’s experiences.
I was born in Lima, Peru, and came to the U.S. in 1986 when my family joined my father, who was assigned a contract here. I took on the challenge of learning English, applied myself to my studies and was fortunate enough to find my way to pursuing my passion for design in architecture school.
I remember presenting projects into which I happily invested endless hours, only to have the professor continually interrupt with, “What are you saying? I don’t understand your accent.” Repeated experiences like this led me to an early realization that as a female foreigner…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
