Following graduation from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México in 2016, I accepted a job offer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico where I worked for 2.5 years organizing diplomatic events. In 2018, I took the foreign service officer exam — my ultimate goal — but I was rejected. So, I had to come up with a plan B. So, I stayed within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but in a different office at the Mexican Agency of International Cooperation for Development. There, I was doing more policy-oriented work. That got me thinking about the next logical step in my career, which was pursuing a master's degree. I was raised in a bicultural home — my mom is French and my dad is Mexican — and living in Puebla, I was surrounded by Mexican culture, but my mother made an effort to instill the French culture in me. 

I took part in U.N. models, negotiation simulations, and a lot of traveling. I’ve done an exchange semester in Paris, studied in South Africa, China, and Israel, and completed an internship at the Mexican embassy in Beijing. I also participated in student government, wrote articles for internal journals on public and international affairs, and served as president of the International Relations Student Association at ITAM. I always found ways to grasp international opportunities. Now, connecting the dots backward, I am grateful for how it happened because, if I wasn’t rejected, I wouldn’t be here, at SPIA. While I did initially feel like that rejection closed that door of foreign service, I never changed vocation. I’m still working in the public sector within the international development sphere, I just found a different way to achieve my goals, and I feel fortunate to be doing that here.