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Hola!

Welcome to Salud.

Celebrating South Texas Latino leaders.

I'm your host, Melanie Mendez Gonzalez.

You're about to meet three inspiring young women who will share their journey to success.

Salud.

Starts now.

On this episode, we're heading up Interstate 35 with stops in New Braunfels and San Marcos.

Our first featured Latina leader faced an incredible health challenge to become an inspirational speaker and youth leader.

Meet Evelina Solis.

My name is Avelino Solis.

I'm a certified women's and youth empowerment and mindset coach as well as an author, speaker, and enrichment teacher.

I started my journey right after college, going into broadcast journalism as a TV and radio journalist, and worked in entertainment news for Westwood One Radio and CBS television.

I ended up working at Ohio Northern University at my alma mater, and I was a recruiter for college students to be able to get into college, and I really fell in love with young adults, like just being able to help even those of young adults myself.

So I had a great time and a great opportunity, and I started having these health issues that came out of nowhere and ended up finding out that I had a pulmonary embolism, and it took me straight into the hospital, had a DVT, which is a deep vein thrombosis.

It's kind of like a blood clot that travels through main artery.

And for most people, you can actually die in 30 to 60 minutes.

I was really thankful to be able to survive.

The funny.

Thing is.

That I ended up getting a job at the University of Texas at Austin, and I actually did the interview for my hospital that they had to connect me from my oxygen tank to be able to do the interview.

I ended up working in leadership and ethics Institute, under the office of the Dean of students, and I pretty much got to help build and create the first ever Leadership and Ethics Institute at UT.

I taught some leadership classes, worked a lot with student groups on campus.

Help them with all of the real world things that they would need to learn before they left school.

I thought I was better from the first incident that happened in about three years later.

I ended up speaking in front of a couple hundred teachers at Saint Edward's University.

I went as far as plugging in my USB and actually had a seizure in front of the whole, these people that came to learn.

So talk about making a first impression.

I was like, rushed to the emergency room, and then it led to a 21 day hospitalization that they didn't know if I was actually going to make it out of the hospital, I seized, I flatlined, I seized, and flatlined.

And these seizures would last for hours.

So it caused a lot of damage.

Doctors had told my families that there wasn't really much more they can do.

And so the fact I even was woke up from that, I reverted back to a childlike state.

And didn't recognize anybody who didn't know my name.

Couldn't walk, you know, couldn't talk, just, couldn't feed myself, couldn't brush my hair.

Just even brushing my teeth was a huge task.

So I had to learn all of my motor skills and cognitive skills all over again.

And, a lot of doctors had asked my parents to accept the fact that I would see an entire, like, state.

We are a family of faith, and our faith is really what got us through.

But they weren't going to accept that as God's prognosis.

Even though it was doctor's diagnosis.

It honestly is a miracle that I'm was sitting in front of you today to be able to do this interview, so I am feeling super blessed.

After that incident had to happen, I decided that in order to make a living, I would have to really be in control of my career.

It started as a life coaching and, speaking resource that I would travel to organizations and colleges in non-profits, chambers of commerce, and I would put on all these inspiration and, speaking engagements.

And it was very interesting because at the end of the day, everyone wanted me to tell my story.

I would go speak about leadership and character development and, you know, talk about all these effective ways of communication.

And they no longer wanted to hear that.

They wanted to hear what helped me survive.

And why I was doing, you know, what I was doing now.

That inspired me to, just honestly start pouring back into use.

From that point on, I knew that my mission and purpose was not over, that God had more for my life.

I think leadership and my communication have really gone hand in hand, and I feel that a lot of times, if you're going to see change, you have to be the one.

If there's a problem or an issue that you see in your community and you want a solution to that, you have to step up and create that organization or that company to answer that problem.

And so you always have to be a leader in what you do through your career.

If you want to move up in the ranks of what you do.

You have to be able to communicate.

You have to be able to take some leadership.

People need to know you're a loyal, trustworthy, dependable.

I see a vision and I take action.

A lot of people will start to think like, is it perfect to have more time to make this right?

Done is better than perfect.

I have had a lot of great mentors throughout my career, even though my parents didn't get to go to college.

They have always really stressed the importance of education and the their work ethic has really helped me to get to the point that I am right now.

So I give a ton of credit to them.

I've just had so many wonderful mentors that have helped me.

I'm a part of an organization called Light Viewers.

We just wrote a book recently in October, coauthored, and we help women tell their stories.

I have another leader that's been in my life for several I mean, a couple decades, almost.

Rebecca Contreras.

She used to work in the white House, for George W Bush.

And then now he's running this huge consulting firm.

She is an incredible, powerful Latina that has led the way.

Advice that I would give to young business women is to just get started.

The hardest part of doing any kind of job is thinking that you have all of this time.

We never know when our last breath is going to be and our last day.

It's so important that if God put dreams in your heart to go after them, sometimes you're not going to see the whole staircase like Martin Luther King says.

Sometimes it's just the first step.

But take that first step and you'll be amazed at the opportunities that will open up.

And I also would say, don't give up.

If I would have looked at my situation thinking there was no way out because there was times, I'm not going to say, you know, it was just rainbows and cupcakes.

But it was a very, very challenging, time.

And there was many times that I could have said, this is it, I am, I'm done.

I'm giving up.

it's so important to keep pushing forward.

Go out there because sharing your story, sharing your idea, sharing concept, sharing what's been put in your heart to start your business could be someone else's survival guide.

And if you're holding on to that, then there's other women that might not think it's possible.

So it's important to get started.

Never to give up.

Keep the faith and just keep going.

Wow.

So inspiring.

Next, a new job can be scary.

With so much to learn and so many new skills to master.

Brianna mendez started helping with student events when she attended Texas State University.

Now she leads in fundraising and alumni engagement with the school.

Along the way, she learned the value of connecting with mentors and not being afraid to admit being a bit nervous.

I'm Brianna mendez and my title is Associate director of development at Texas State University.

A big part of my job is reengaging alumni, throughout the community.

And really the area that I focus on is San Antonio.

And so Texas State has a large amount of alumni that's still in Texas and local areas.

And so I just reach out to people to see if they're interested in getting reengaged with their alma mater.

Being an alumni and being able to work here has meant everything to me so far.

I know I wouldn't be where I am at in my career, had it not been for Texas State University when I first started college, I had my first internship, which was a marketing internship with the San Antonio Current.

in that role, I was able to work on different events.

So the current had seven signature events, and a large part of my job was working on the marketing materials for that.

From there, I started looking for other jobs and opportunities.

And at Texas State, there was a role called Pride and Traditions Coordinator, which I came to find out was an event coordinating roles, actually the swearing ceremony.

That was really where I began this big interest in event planning was a career path.

That was something that I could do, that I was passionate about, that I loved, that I enjoyed, and it gave me leadership opportunities to work with a variety of people and the communities I was in, whether it was San Antonio or San Marcus.

When you're an event coordinator, staying calm because you have 20 people and 20 different things happening at one time is the best skill set you can have because you'll never have a day, an event that's peaceful.

For me, staying calm, when I'm in a situation, in an event, it's really that I talk to people about the solutions and, you know, if there are going to be consequences if something's going to go wrong saying, okay, this is the worst it can be, but also preparing for all of these situations before an event even happened.

I'm a big planner, so there's always going to be plans A to Z, not just A to Z.

Got to go all the way to Z and just have backup options constantly.

and having the discussions with leaders around me that have been in similar situations before, similar events and saying what went wrong for you, what went well and what can I do, and what do you think we should prepare for him?

What do you see going wrong in the day?

I've been fortunate to have many mentors in my career, so at United Way I had Doctor Casey McCormick.

She was incredible, and a leader in the community that I got to work alongside with first.

just when I started there and then I was able to join her team as a leadership giving manager.

But all the volunteers we worked with absolutely were mentors because we worked on these large projects together.

There were so many large projects, like power at the Purse that were just these huge pieces that involved so many community members that I got to see what that looked like from a executive level of what goes into these meetings.

How do you handle these conversations?

How do you involve even more people?

And the great part of being in an organization like that and working with all these incredible women, particularly, was they talked about inviting other women to the table.

How do we continuously empower women and continue to see even more women move up into these leadership positions that they were in?

So it was constantly a conversation of how can we all grow together?

Which is the best mentorship I think I could have had in my career?

We're the only.

University to have a president or Texas university to have a president graduate from it, and a King George Street did go here.

What excites me about what I do is that I've been taught since I was in high school, or even younger than that, that I need to get back to my community, that they are students and people, in our communities that don't always have somebody in their corner.

And that's what you need sometimes, is just somebody cheering you on, and you can do this and that.

You're doing something great.

I think one of the first biggest obstacles that I faced was that half of my professional career roles are new positions to accompany new positions and titles that no one's ever had before.

So while that's great and exciting and there's so much creativity in that, I also did not have anybody to ask questions to that had any historical knowledge of what I should be doing.

There was no key indicators to say I was doing my job well.

There was nothing saying that my company was getting a return on their investment in me.

And so that's really intimidating some days is because you just wonder, am I doing enough?

Am I doing the right thing?

And so working through that, I think one of the biggest things is just being okay with failure.

I was like, some things are going to go great, and you're going to learn so much from the things that go great, but also some things are going to fail and that's okay.

And you're going to learn a lesson in that.

So I think if you're in the position that you're younger and you're going into the room that you're leading with complete executives in these high up leaders and people who have been in volunteer positions for years before you to just be confident in the voice that you have, really trust that your leadership saw you as a leader.

They knew that you are the expert in your job and to be confident that you are representing your company.

But also it's okay to, feel intimidated and to ask people before you even get in the room, how do I handle this situation if it happens?

Because I think the moment you share that you're nervous and that you're scared, this is going to happen or it has happened to you before, there's power in just saying that out loud and then knowing that someone's going to cheer you on and say, nope, you do deserve this.

Let's have the conversation.

You are qualified.

Go into that room and be great.

The one piece of advice or something that the leaders have told me, is that there is.

They've always been excited to hear that.

I take feedback well.

And criticism, I've always kind of been in a position to where, after a meeting or anything, I'll ask for the feedback or what went well, or I immediately want to plan and say, this can go better the next time.

And having leaders acknowledge that that was something that was going to help me really is what pushed me to keep going in my career.

Or like, we see you growing.

We see that you're passionate about wanting to do better and be better.

And so the moment they saw that passion in me, they wanted to help me.

When you meet these Latina leaders and even in myself, that once we have a goal in mind, it's happening.

Really be confident.

As a Latina, there are so many times in our families that we're the first people to have our career path, or to be invited to certain types of events, or whether you're first generation that you're going to be uncomfortable, and scared of being in that position.

I was so intimidated.

I didn't know how to start a conversation.

I didn't know how to dress, and all of these things were terrifying, and it made it easy to want to say no when I was invited to these events.

But say yes.

Ask the people around you how to handle those situations.

Because the moment I let my coworkers know that I was scared or intimidated, we shared what outfits we were going to wear.

They said, come along with me.

I'll introduce you to this person.

Oh, let's practice and set down how you can have this conversation, how you can approach somebody.

So never be scared to say yes to something just because it's new or intimidating, or someone in your family hasn't done it before.

So many wonderful young Latinas stepping into leadership in our community.

Many young women are now seeing success in areas like Stem and technology.

One woman who helps them learn along the way is to sell DeLeon.

She joins Jesse Diego for a chat.

Our guest today is the wonderful Giselle De Leon, an amazing Latina who deserves a salute for what you are doing for so many young Latinas, the future generation, in a field that is really challenging and still evolving science, technology, engineering and math.

You are the lead educator at the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology at Port San Antonio.

That is amazing because take it from one who in high school numbers were not my best.

I was always a word person.

That's how I became a journalist, not a mathematician.

So I'm really in awe of everything that you're doing.

Please give our viewers an idea of what it is that you do.

So what I do as a lead some educator at SAMHSa is a plethora of different things.

As always on the fly, always busy.

we go anything from planning different kinds of programs such as essays, smart, our summer camp programs that we have, field trips.

We even do outreach Oracle out to schools, and we offer our Stem programs, to kind of give students a different experience from the traditional classroom setting that they usually have.

one thing I noticed growing up is that, like a lot of students who maybe weren't as good at Stem as other students in the traditional classroom sense, but I remember students that I was friends with, that we would be in the playground and we'd be playing and they would be engaging in subjects that were related to Stem, that just looking at bucks, being interested in geology, looking at the weather.

Right.

But in the classroom, they were kind of getting left behind.

And that was something that always stuck with me throughout my educational career, throughout my job career that I've had here at Sam set.

And I want to be able to show all students of all backgrounds saying that, hey, if you have an interest in something, you can do it too.

Even if the classroom isn't your best strong suit, there are other options outside of there to engage with Stem.

So those young people, very promising young people already on the path, already on the path.

But what about women.

Women who may be considering a career change or want to consider.

Let's see.

Is this something I could do.

Why would you encourage especially Latinas to get involved in Stem.

And certainly everything else that's coming down the road robotics, AI, everything that's coming at us so quickly.

Why why is it important that Latinos be involved in that?

I think it's very important, because one thing I've noticed in the industry is that I want to see more faces that look like us.

You know, I want to see that representation because when I see students that they see someone that looks like me, I see young girls who look like me and they say, so I can do that too.

And I want them to see that in that industry and to any adult Latinas, young Latinas, Latinas or Latinas of any age, really.

So I want to let them know that they can do it too.

We can't go to higher education because it's too expensive.

Let's go.

Reach out.

We have libraries.

I remember growing up, my mother would take me every Thursday for teen nights or teen events, and that's still a soft spot in my heart where I always highlight, let's go to our libraries, let's we can do our own research if we can't afford the opportunities other people might have.

Is there a network kind of a tribe of other women within Stem or Stem related fields?

Is there an effort to help them, or how can they get the information they need to really ignite their passions?

there are a whole lot of organizations, so we have a sense that it's software just being a part of our events.

You kind of meet different people from other industries, and they naturally share their knowledge with you and give the opportunity to network.

I know across the way, we also have Capital Factory, where they're able to help up with startups and again, being able to network in that area is very awesome.

in the Port San Antonio area, there's also a cafeteria.

One thing I always tell our students, and we'll see industry professionals eating there and you can always just approach them if you want to talk with them and say hi, that's an area where it's open and safe to do so.

we also have a Women in Robotics chapter.

Also, there at Tech Port as well.

And I think it's just awesome to see women in Stem working together and meeting and trying to see what difference can they make in the community.

And so the resources are out there.

And if nothing else, you can certainly just go to the museum and say, point me in the right direction.

Yes, yes, exactly.

Yeah.

It is very hard still.

You know, like I see it's I see a few women, you know, I mean, going around in the Stem industry and, you know, I would like to see more.

Not enough of us.

Yes, yes.

Not enough Latinos.

But you're working on that.

Yes.

We're trying to work on that.

And so what, what potential do these students have.

Do you see that in their futures.

Is that really are they going to pursue that.

Yes I absolutely do.

So one thing I love is when well I don't see.

So one thing I often see is I see students walking and they'll be amazed by it.

And maybe they'll start being silly or making jokes and they'll think, oh, they'll just be a little class clown, so to speak.

Right?

But then I'll catch them.

I'll catch them.

They'll start actually asking some questions and they'll be like, oh, that's a dumb question.

I say, no, no, no, any question is a good question.

So I let them voice their opinions.

I want to give them that platform, that voice that maybe if they're silly, they get shut down often.

And I want them to know that their voice is important too.

And oftentimes their questions are really, really good.

Questions like say, no, that's not a dumb question.

We answer that and then it spurs student discussions from other students who maybe otherwise might have been quiet, or maybe also been disruptive, so to speak, but they also get engaged and interested in it.

No judgment.

Yes.

No judgment.

Exactly.

Just kind of release that pressure and let them enjoy them for what it is.

It's fun.

It can be fun to share with us some of your background.

What was it in your background that set you on the path where you are now?

So growing up, I grew up, around Kelly, Air Force Base.

My grandpa was a foreman.

My mom and grandma worked in record keeping there.

So when Kelly, Air Force Base shut down, I got a first hand.

See what it did to the local economy where there was not as many people, not as much funding.

A lot of people were struggling.

And I kind of I saw the students in the air get left behind, basically.

And so I was lucky enough to have my family, you know, be able to make sacrifices for me to continue higher education and maybe better areas.

I was always getting scholarships, so I was surrounded by students that maybe didn't have the same background as me, but I wanted to study hard.

I wanted to excel the way my family wanted me to.

I remembered those kids from those schools and I said, okay, what can I do for them?

How can I include these kids that are getting left behind?

Oftentimes I would see teachers just shut them down or call them dumb because they didn't instantly get it, but maybe they had ADHD, maybe they had dyslexia like my mom did.

How can we make sure that doesn't happen again to other students?

Educators, are you out there listening, please?

You know, listen to our students because really, you never know.

It might be another Einstein that you don't even know.

They could cure cancer.

They don't know exactly another Bill gates problem, but you mentioned Kelly.

Okay.

So you know how Kelly Air Force Base provided jobs and new skills for Latinos and that I've been told, helped create the middle class among Latinos in San Antonio?

Do you see perhaps Stem related fields, robotics, AI, those kinds of fields?

Do you see those doing the same for even more Latinos and even better, pay, better opportunities?

Do you see the same effect that Kelly had now with what you're doing?

Yes, absolutely.

And even then, some.

So with all the industries within the tech work campus, it's just absolutely blows my mind how close everything is from scary, Boeing, standard Aero Night Aerospace, hearing the wonderful things.

But they're doing together in tandem.

And being able to give those tours at Samsa and letting our students know, hey, this is what you all can do.

This are things that you all are going to be holding out for the next generation.

So they they're able to see that with their own eyes and see other people that look like them in the industry, you know, slowly filling up those spaces.

And I love that.

On the south side, on the south side.

Exactly.

I still live down the street.

I'm still south side.

There you go through and through.

So let's wrap up very briefly.

He would tell me like kind of hard to sum it up, but what, what what life's lesson have you learned so far up to now?

What is the lesson that you'll always keep with you?

I guess I would have to go back to things that my mom would tell me when I was a kid, things that help kept me going.

Like I was able to study abroad with scholarship because what she always said to me is just keep asking questions if you don't know it.

I was first generation in college to keep asking questions.

Look for opportunities.

The worst answer you can get is no.

Reach for it and see what happens.

Thank you of that wonderful note.

Thank you so much.

We still go on and more power to you and all those wonderful students that you're working with.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jesse.

That's a wrap for this episode of salad.

Thank you for being here.

We'll see you again next week to celebrate San Antonio█s Latina leaders on salad.

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