Head Marketing Consultant of the environmental organization Pro Peninsula Giuliana Schroeder opens up about her bi-national childhood, what she loves about her job, and the building blocks of where she stands today.
By Alia Boynton
Judging by the job she works at and the cool and calm demeanor that she handles dealing with customers and business associates from different parts of the world, you can automatically assume that Giuliana Schroeder is a woman who has seen and experienced many different cultures. It is a typical Wednesday in the open airy office that Giuliana-or Gigi, as she prefers to be called does most of her work out of, and she is dressed in casual sweats and comfortable sneakers as she sits cross-legged on a bench and sips her coffee, using her pink Blackberry to record our conversation as I ask her questions about her fascinating background.
“I have traveled and lived all over after high school, in between college studies, and post my BA degree: Florence, Tokyo, Mexico city, Seattle and its been by encompassing both college studies and travels that I decided to focus my efforts in the environment and education field.” The main thing that stands out about Giuliana after working with her for some time at the Pro Peninsula office is that she has an extremely laid back personality and handles situations with a mature disposition. It is not so apparent at first, however, how she has grown to handle herself in such a way, but it is clear that she has a long and rich history beneath the surface. “I was raised as a bi-national kid, I have dual citizenship, and moved back and forth between San Diego, Mexico City, and Cuernavaca, Morelos for most of my life…it’s been by encompassing both college studies and travels that I decided to focus my efforts in the environment and education field,” says Giuliana about the travels and background that lead her to becoming so successful in working with the environmental organization Pro Peninsula that she is with today. When she mentions things about her life growing up, it is inspiring and astonishing, although the way she talks about it makes it all seem very casual and commonplace.
AB: Where did you go to College?
GS: I got my BA in humanities at Soka University of America, a liberal arts school in OC whose main focus is to promote the idea of “creating value”, which is the literal meaning of Soka (a Japanese work). I also have a Minor in Fine Arts.
AB: What are the benefits/negative aspects of traveling and moving so often while growing up?
GS: I think that the benefits mostly involve being able to adapt better to change getting to know different people. Through doing this through my childhood and growing up I had found that life, businesses and relationships all revolve around creating connections with people, so I think this allowed me to create a lot of different connections in a lot of different networks and places that have given me a lot of confidence and a lot of options, especially if I am put in a position where I need to move around or change jobs. The setbacks that you don’t have that sense of creating roots somewhere, I’ve always felt like I’m from many places, and I’ve moved a lot so I feel like I don’t have as many people that I can really identify with because no one was changing locations as often as me.
AB: What led you to choose to major in humanities?
GS: I was interested in liberal arts in general, and at the time I was also minoring in fine arts and I had been taking the courses that I was more interested in, which were more so like philosophy and literature, and it was towards the end of my Junior year that I saw that all of my classes were in that category. It was between that and International relations, so I almost double majored, but in the end I just chose to do Humanities. It was kind of a decision that was made for me.
AB: What lead you to finding at job at Pro Peninsula?
GS: I’ve worked all over in order to get here, at many unrelated positions like more community service and public relations or advocacy and legislation promotion, but I think the job that got me here was at Pronatura Mexico AC, the largest Mexico-based environemental nonprofit, as a Communications and Publications Consultant for two years. I helped in events, website, translation, editor and writer of their magazine. Definitely the building blocks to where I stand today.
AB: How exactly did you hear about this job?
GS: I think it was from a website called idealists.org, I was being interviewed by a lot of places at the time, but I’m pretty sure it was idealists.org, which is a website for people looking for jobs in non-profit organizations and social work type of things, and it was mainly just good luck and timing.
AB: What is your favorite part of working at Pro Peninsula?
GS: I love a lot of things about it. When I was first looking for a job in the environmental field I always wanted to somehow mix the idea that I was giving back to Mexico, that I was able to use both languages, that I was able to use art in my work as well as education, and the events I get to plan are very fun. I like a lot of parts of my job but if I had to choose, probably the big answer would be what we stand for. To help the community and create a long term goal in environmental conservation.
AB: How do you think that all the traveling you’ve done has really benefited you over the years?
GS: It really helped me with being able to adapt easily to change, being able to mature and be more independent. I moved to Italy for a year when I graduated high school by myself and found an apartment by myself, so I think that I learned not having someone to turn to and having to figure it out on my own, that gave me a lot of independence, which is something that people in my family cannot necessarily relate to. I think that’s what I benefited from the most.
AB: Out of all the places you’ve been to, which stood out the most?
GS: Probably Thailand. I lived in Japan for 6 months, and the last two weeks I traveled to Thailand. I kind of felt like I should have lived there. Japan was incredible, but it was a culture that was difficult to identify with.
No comments:
Post a Comment