My Why
When I founded ELSI® in 2015, something became clear to me: anything and everything in our lives is a product of someone else’s work. Our survival depends on sharing, on reciprocity, on recognizing that we have a responsibility to those who came before us. Someone paid for my education. Someone built the computer I’m typing from. Someone fought for my right to be here. Someone sacrificed so I could have choices they didn’t.
Anything and everything in our lives is a product of someone else’s work.
Growing up between La Capital (Santo Domingo) and The Bx (The Bronx; yeerrr!), literally between two countries, two languages, two normals, I felt that weight early. I still do. And I don’t want to escape it or minimize it. That responsibility is the whole reason I show up.
My faith in Jesus grounds me in this work. It’s not separate from my commitment to social justice. My faith tells me that if I see people being left out, pushed to the margins, denied access to their human rights, I have to do something about it. I can’t just pray about it. I have to build toward it.
Keepin’ it Real
I’m a Dominican immigrant and a first-generation college grad. That means I know what it’s like to navigate spaces that weren’t built for people like me. I know the weight of being the first. I know what it feels like to code-switch, to translate not just languages but entire worldviews. I know the privilege of access and the pain of watching people you love get locked out of it, constantly.
I don’t share this for sympathy. It’s the whole reason I’m good at what I do. When I work with survivors of human trafficking, refugees rebuilding their lives, or Brazilians trying to access opportunities through language, I’m not coming at it from theory. I’m coming at it from lived experience. I speak Spanish, English, and Portuguese because those languages connected me to my family, my heritage, and eventually, my life’s purpose.
What I’m Building
I founded ELSI® (Experience. Learn. Share. Inspire.) initially as a platform to share experiences, specifically those I partook in as first in my family, like getting on a 13-hour flight for a high school exchange program in China. I continued building it because I got tired of watching people with incredible potential get left behind by barriers that had nothing to do with their ability. Currently, ELSI® is focused on providing 1-on-1 English language learning to low-income Afro-Brazilian adults. But it’s bigger than language classes. It’s access. It’s advocacy. It’s being able to confidently walk into a room and tell their own story.
Through my work serving vulnerable populations with international and local nonprofits, I’ve learned that the most transformative thing you can do is show up with respect for people’s resilience, reminding them of their humanity and potential. It’s a trauma-informed approach because the people I work with have been through it. It’s culturally responsive because one-size-fits-all doesn’t work when you’re trying to serve communities that have been systematically ignored. And it’s rooted in collaboration because I’m not here to save anybody. I’m here to work alongside people and help clear the path they’re already trying to walk. It’s holistic.
Education, Community, and Justice.
I believe people can learn, grow, and transform their own lives and the lives of those around them if they’re given the chance. I’m not building for people in the abstract. I’m building with real people. I listen. I ask. I show up. This work is explicitly political. I’m not neutral about whether historically excluded communities deserve access and opportunity. They do.
I’m interested in work that’s unapologetically rooted in faith, that centers the experiences of people who’ve been left out, and that actually moves people’s lives forward. Not just feels good. Not just sounds progressive. Rather, the kinda impact that transformatively liberates.
