Hi everyone, my name is Chayanne! I am 22 years old, a mom to my four-year-old daughter and a wife. I work for a nonprofit organization called El Puente. El Puente is a community human rights institution that promotes leadership for peace and justice through the engagement of members (youth and adult). I started working in January 2023, and I have risen from receptionist to hopefully soon administrative assistant. Working here has opened my eyes to a future career in HR management. I am almost graduating from BMCC (after this semester I have one more class that I need to take). I am thinking of going to either John Jay for public administration or to Baruch for HR management.
My family and I are from Puerto Rico, and my family has lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn since before the 70s! I strive to be a better person every single day–and more recently I have devoted my time to bettering myself mentally, and physically. Going to school full time and working part time while also being a full-time mom has been overwhelming yet rewarding. I believe that part of my growth has come from the mix of those three things. I struggled a lot as a kid, going through rough family patches, to being bullied at school, almost failing freshman year in high school. I’d like to say that I’ve really made a way for myself and while there felt like there was this huge force against me, I feel like I became a person that I am most proud of. I’ve learned to give grace to myself. I’ve learned recently that everyone’s timeline looks a lot different! I used to beat myself up about dropping out of college when I was 18 (because I became pregnant and had very little support). Once my daughter was able to go to HeadStart, I immediately went searching for job and ultimately that landed me on also trying to come back to school– which I did, last fall! This has been a great journey of self-exploration and of learning.
I look forward to being an active participant in this class!
