Read about how Reyna's STAR status is leading her path toward computer science and a dream of building a platform for low-income youth, powered entirely by grit and on-the-job learning.
Reyna reflects that growing up low-income, she never saw a career path for herself but her experiences in various jobs helped her develop a vision of what she wants to accomplish. She started in the restaurant industry and worked briefly in an office before doing an IT internship through a youth work program. The internship experience helped her transition to a job in insurance sales, where she had to go through a rigorous training process and pass a state exam to get a license.
She applies many of the communication and teamwork skills she learned across her prior jobs to be successful in the sales role. She said, “my family doesn’t really come from any type of corporate field or anything of that sort. So just seeing the environment and talking to the people in that environment, really gave me a new perspective on how to see things and talk to people where I actually want to be.”
She also learned the importance of sticking up for herself in the workplace, especially as a woman who is interested in going into the tech field. She recalls how in meetings with potential clients, “they wouldn’t even look my way. They just made direct eye contact with the guys, with my male colleagues.” She describes having to adapt and focus on the client’s needs to show that she is capable. “I would just have to improvise and start thinking critically about what it is that they need.”
Reyna continues to work and take college classes towards a computer science degree. She wants to develop a learning and support platform that helps young people who come from similar backgrounds to hers. She says, “everyone has a different way to success, and navigating life is already hard as it is. I believe that once I create this, hopefully it could help out millions of kids who are going through it.”
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