Occupation: My current occupation is being the sales manager of the Newtown Verizon Wireless Zone location, which I took over mid-January.

Family: I’m currently engaged with no children, but I have three amazing siblings alongside with a very hard working father.

Pets: I have a Holland Lop bunny named Hunny, and I also have a sugar glider named Cloud. I chose these animals as my pets because they were rescues and also community creatures, which means they need another living thing to live. Bringing them together has made them both very happy.

What do you like to do in your free time? In my free time, I spend it doing three different things. My first one is writing. I enjoy writing books and screenplays. My next thing is dance. Growing up, that’s what kept my head on straight. When I moved to Bethel, my first order of business was to learn how to swing dance. My last favorite thing I like to do is travel. I’ve seen the entire east coast and I’ve been to Jamaica twice. My second visit is where I proposed to my fiancé.

What is your favorite book? My favorite book is called Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. It was beautiful and encouraging.

Who has been the greatest influence in your life? My greatest influence will always be my father. He never failed to provide or give us advice when needed. He worked most days, but when home he didn’t spend it resting. He spent it bonding with us and making sure every holiday was one to remember. He is smart and patient. I don’t think he’ll ever truly understand how impactful he has been to my siblings and me. There isn’t anything I would like more than to be as great as my father has been. His shoes sometimes seem too large to fill but the challenge keeps the fire burning in me to be greater everyday.

If you could spend the day with one person, who would you choose and why? Albert Einstein. I’m huge into space science.

Who is your favorite musical artist? My favorite musical artist will be and will forever be, Mr Sammy Davis, Jr. His career will never be seen as it should be. I accidentally came across this man when helping a friend with a college essay. They wanted her to pick a famous dancer and write about what made him or her special. So I typed in, “top ten dancers ever.” At number nine was Sammy. Starting as a poor street tap dancer, to becoming one with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, he should be an icon of his own.

What is the greatest piece of advice you have ever been given? “Live your life with the most self-respect, but also live with no shame. Which means, you enjoy every moment of your life the way you decide. May it be you being silly or you being serious, do not allow peer pressure or the status quo to push you in a direction you know you will end up not enjoying. Life is too short to not be happy.”

What is something you cannot live without? My fiancé, father, and siblings. They have all been a backbone for me, and they all have given me everything a person needs emotionally and mentally.

What is your proudest accomplishment? My proudest accomplishment would have to be overcoming the fear of failure. I embrace it now, because without failure there is no success!

What is a meal/recipe your family has passed down to you? My ethnic background is Peruvian. The family dish that has been passed down is called Arroz tapado, which is white rice, ground beef, chopped onions, a crushed boiled egg, raisins, and then seasonings. Very delicious. You then take the rice and line a food bowl. Then you fill it with everything else you cooked mixed together. Then flip it over on a plate. Looks like a rice patty with ground meat on the inside.

What is a tradition your family does that is important to you? We have monthly Skype meetups with the whole family. All the cousins, aunts, and uncle telling stories and catching up. We’ve been doing that for the last year and it’s been a great bonding experience with all the newborns and newly engaged members to the family.