What is your name? Louise D.
What is your profession? I’m an associate in the corporate relations department at a non-profit organization that serves as a platform for dialogue between public and private sector leaders from US/Latin America.
What company do you work for? Americas Society/Council of the Americas
How long have you been in this role? A year and 4 months.
What did you study in college? Double major in economics and Spanish and a minor in Latin American Studies.
Why did you choose this job? I wanted to find a job that would require me to use Spanish and have always been very interested in Latin America.
What is an average day like in your role? I manage the financial reports of the department so most of my time is spent doing numbers which I enjoy. I track all membership and sponsorship money that comes into organization by means of corporate members. And make a lot of phone calls chasing after the money.
What’s the most challenging part of your job? Trying to communicate w people in Brazil because I don’t speak Portuguese. Also learning to work with different types of people. With some you may click instantly while with others it can take time to adjust to their style of doing things.
What’s your favorite part of the job? We have over 200 corporate members coming from many different sectors so it is cool for me to keep up to date with what is going on in the different companies and seeing which companies prioritize which countries in LatAm.
Any tips for current college students who aspire to have your job? Keep up to date with the news in Latin America, important to understand what’s going on in the region as it affects our day to day work.
If you had a time machine and could travel back to visit yourself in college, what’s the #1 piece of advice you would have given yourself? Don’t be close-minded, take advantage of groups/clubs on campus and meeting different people. I didn’t really do anything “extracurricular” besides my sorority and I wish I had.
What is a fun perk of your job? We have this network called the Young Professionals of the Americas – a group of 200+ kids in 20s/30s and we do tons of cool events – art shows, gallery tours, parties. Network provides cool exposure to leaders from various industries and great networking opportunities.
