Jennie Brooks, host of the Unstoppable Together podcast, talks to Carolina Rivadeneyra-Enriquez, a senior consultant supporting Booz Allen's aerospace market in Hawaii. She shares stories of her immigration to the United States and serving in the U.S. Navy, and lessons learned from a recent women’s leadership program she completed just in time for Women’s History Month.
Jennie Brooks:
Welcome to Booz Allen Hamilton's Unstoppable Together podcast. A series of stories that unite us and empower each of us to change the world. I'm Jennie Brooks with Booz Allen Hamilton, and I'm passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion. Please join me in conversation with the diverse group of thought leaders to explore what makes them and all of us unstoppable.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Unstoppable Together podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Brooks. And today I'm thrilled to speak with Carolina Rivadeneyra-Enriquez. Carolina is a senior consultant working in Booz Allen's aerospace market out of our Hawaii office. And today we're going to be talking with her about seizing opportunity as we recognize women's history month. Carolina, welcome to the podcast.
Carolina Rivadeneyra-Enriquez:
Well, thank you so much, Jennie. Thank you for having me.
Jennie :
So you shared with us that you came to the United States from Peru via a lottery process in 2001. And the data shows that in the year 2021, only about 50,000 people out of over 23 million applicants or roughly 0.2% were offered green cards. Can you share with us a little bit about what was that experience like for you? How was your family looking at the opportunity? It's a massive decision to come to the United States. Can you share with us a little bit about that journey?
Carolina:
Yes, of course. So we were looking for opportunities. I was young. I was only 15, 16 when my mom applied for the visa lottery and we got that lucky, like you said, it was not that many people that made it. I learned by living in US that a lot of countries have this lottery. I was blessed and I went to a school that taught German as a second language. So my plans were actually to go probably to Germany or to do an international exchange student. So coming to US was really a surprise. But that's where the taking the opportunity comes from because we're like, "Whoa. We were chosen, we got lucky, let's go for it." And that's how I ended up coming here in 2001. So I got here when I was 16 and it was definitely a cultural shock. I went to California and it was fun, but a lot of, because of the background that I came from, everybody thought that I was either Mexican.
Most people don't even recognize that there is over 20 countries that speak Spanish. That was different. But I learned a lot. I actually made a lot of friends from Central America which was fun because in California, everybody speaks Spanish. One thing that I do have to mention is that I got to meet so many countries living in California. I met people from Philippines, from Vietnam, from China, from Korea, from Venezuela, from Guatemala. It was a mix of everything. And that's one of the things that attracted me so much to US. All these multicultural backgrounds mixed together and making it happen, making friends all over the world in one place.
Jennie:
Oh, I love hearing about all the fun you had in coming to California. Of course, I'm completely biased. I was born in San Francisco. Spent most of my life in San Diego. But I do think it's one of those special places. It's got great diversity and everyone can find themselves included in a place like California. Okay. When you made the decision to join the Navy at the age of 17, what were your primary motivations? And as you thought about it as a Hispanic woman, what opportunities did you see or consider by serving the United States Navy?
Carolina:
Well, like I said before, I always take opportunity as they come. When I moved to US, 9/11 had just happened. So it was a big impact in the culture of US. That I remember there were, the recruiters were looking to get people into the Navy or all the different branches. I was actually not applying for the military at the time, but somehow a recruiter got my application. I was applying for jobs and he got my application and he told me, "Just take this test and see how you do. And if you pass, you go. If you don't, you can come back." So I pass. I took the test. I'm really good at math. So my numbers was great. English, I had to learn English. I didn't speak fluent at the time. My fluent language was German at the time. So, that was a little struggle.
But again, I took the opportunity. I made it happened. I was like, "Let's go." And how it impacted me was that again, it made me appreciate more the job that the military does. Because I got a chance to work with these people from different cultures, different backgrounds, different mentalities, and you have to get along because you're working together.
You're going into war. You're going to be a family for the long time. So you have to make it work. That's one of the reasons why I still work close to military because I feel like if there is any way that I can make their lives easier, I will try to help. I guess in a way is my life model is take the opportunity as it comes. I was not looking to join the military. I was a little scared of the fact that you will be sent to war because that's a big possibility, especially with what was happening. But I'm also a very strong woman. I come from a strong woman background. In Peru, woman are the matriarchs of the communities. So I was like, "You know what? Military, there I come." One thing that caught me, the recruiter was actually Filipino. And he told me that from his experience that I was going to learn a lot. Not only learn to speak English, but also to learn a lot. And it was going to take me places. And I was like, "Yes, let's do it. Let's take the opportunity."
Jennie:
Any other experiences being a minority that you'd like to share?
Carolina:
As Hispanic woman, I felt well, I was a minority for sure. Being a woman, being an immigrant, speaking another language. But I felt that makes you meet other minorities as well. For instance, most of my best friends were either Asian or Latinos or African American and it was awesome. Because I had a chance to merge into their communities because we had something in common. We were minorities also. It made me learn a lot about my coworkers, their style of living. A lot of coworkers that I had when I was active duty, they have never met Hispanic person in their life because of the place that they come from.
And that was a shock to me coming from another country that sometimes you just live in a bubble and you don't know what else is outside until you join the military and you have a chance to talk to all these different people you never imagined that it was going to happen to you, right? So yeah, it was a cultural shock. But I like to think positive of everything that happens in my life. I like to concentrate on the positive. There were some tough times. Sometimes because I was a woman. So because I spoke Spanish. But I like to concentrate on the positive and keep moving forward.
Jennie:
Wow, Carolina, you have just reframed for us experiences that I think people often struggle with. For example, having concerns about having an accent and reframing that in to being multilingual as a strength or as a woman serving in a male dominated career field in this case, the military. And leveraging your experience coming from a matriarchal society into basically saying, "All right, military, here we come. Let's go." Thank you for sharing. Carolina, when we talk about seizing opportunity, there's so many different ways to have that conversation in our personal lives, in our community, in our workplace. As we step into women's history month this year, how are you thinking about the idea of seizing opportunity as a leader, an immigrant, and a veteran?
Carolina:
So to me, I feel like women need to take more leadership positions. We tend to shy away, or we feel like maybe we're not good enough. And I feel like we need to get over that and remember what we bring to the table. We all have talents. We all have something to give to this world and we should use it. Remember where you come from and remember what made you you. Nobody is like you. So bring it. And again, we need those talents. We need those people. We need you to speak up. So my advice to other people like me is take the chance, take the opportunity. And you never know where it's going to take you. I mean, it brought me to Hawaii. Just say yes to the opportunity and I think it will take you to a good place.
Jennie:
What was your experience in the Patsy Mink Women Leadership Alliance program?
Carolina:
So this one was a great opportunity that I joined. Patsy Mink Women Leadership Alliance, it was almost a year and it happened right during the pandemic. It was right when the pandemic was starting. It was a time that we were starting with this cohort. So already the woman that joined this group were women that were capable of adapting to a new world. And we had to run all the meetings online. We did all the courses and webinars online and back then it was all new. Because if you remember, before we didn't meet as often online. We had to get used to Zoom. We had to get used to seeing each other through the camera and the little box. But we made the best out of it and we learned a lot. It brought us together. It was a group of 25 women and it brought us all together.
We all had so much in common. And at the same time we wanted to share this with other people. We wanted to lead by example. Which is another thing that I will highly recommend women is to lead by example. If you want more women leaders, you got to be it and then you could bring more people with you. So what was interesting about this program is that all these women leaders were from different businesses. It was not all military. I think I was the only one with a military background. Everybody had a different background. They were working for different companies in Hawaii. There were BPs, they were upcoming leaders. Some of them had their own businesses going. So interesting is that we all felt that we were not enough and that's why we weren't moving forward. Because we just felt like something was missing. We needed to get it perfect in order to advance.
Sometimes we were afraid to ask for a raise because we felt like we didn't deserve it. And this group just help us realize we were all in the same boat, probably because, women, we are so hard on ourselves. So that was one of the things that I appreciate so much about this program, because they taught us how to trust our talent, trust ourselves, and also teach other women to feel comfortable in themselves too. And definitely even having a family is not going to pull you back. It just shows how much resilience you have and how much you learned from that experience as a housewife or as a mom. It was a good program.
Jennie:
Wow, Carolina, I love everything you just shared. Don't shy away from opportunity. Remember that you are enough. There's nobody else like you. And I especially love your message around resilience for working parents, working moms, particularly over the pandemic and any of the moms who have teenage kids at home like I do right now, special shout-out for your perseverance as well right now. These last two years have been so challenging for everyone. Especially for women, when you look at the rate at which so many women have departed the workforce. And this isn't a problem that any one of us can solve on our own. I think we need to come together, join together in solving it. What do you think you'll be relying on in the future as we look to pull through the pandemic, we look for our return to the office and hopefully in women returning to the workforce? What are some of the strategies that you will be relying on or you have relied on in the past that you'll carry for into the future?
Carolina:
So I think community support is very important. That's one thing that I think got us going. That's why the Patsy Mink Leadership Alliance was so good to all of us because you find a community of like-minded individuals that share common goals and they share support for each other. We all have tough times. We all did. We all been there right now. And you need support from your family, from your coworkers, from other women. And just like you would like support, you also need to give support to others. So if we want to heal together and we want to grow together, we really need to be supportive of each other. I'm the kind of person that feels if you want to lead, you need to also be the support system.
Jennie:
Okay. So this time next year, what are your hopes for yourself and for all women in 2023, what do you envision?
Carolina:
Definitely look for opportunities for growth. One of the things that I did recently was obtain my PMP certification. And I did that because I felt like we needed more project managers and we needed more leadership, helping the employees, helping people, helping our communities. So I feel like if you could take any training or find a mentor or find opportunities to grow that will help you and that will help your community take the opportunity. One thing that I always recommend people is to represent who you are, where you're from. Don't try to hide it because who you are is what makes you special. Probably why my accent hasn't gone a way because I just want to keep it. And I think that you got to bring your whole self whenever you work, either in your personal life with your coworkers, because that's what the diversity is what makes us great as a country. I love the fact that we live in a multicultural place where we could learn so much from each other and it just makes us grow even more because we learn from each other.
Jennie:
Absolutely. Bring your whole self, including your accents. Carolina, at the end of every podcast, we give our guests their free space to share their final thoughts. What would you like to leave with our audience today?
Carolina:
So three ideas that I mentioned throughout this conversation. One is take the opportunity as they come. You never know where it's going to take you and it might surprise you. Don't be scared because it's your life. Just take the opportunity. If you needed a push right now, this is it. This is your signal. Take the opportunity. Second thing is to lead by example. Because I do believe that we have to be good leaders and we have to be supportive of other people.
And it's not just about us, it's about others and we need to be community, a strong community. So lead by example, and then others will follow. And the final comment is, keep moving forward. I feel like with everything that's been going on in the world, it affected all of us, not just a few people. All of us are struggling and all of us have different situations in our lives that affect us at our work or in our personal life. And I think that if we just concentrate on the future on what we're going to do, keep moving forward. I actually heard that in a movie, a kid's movie because I have kids and I was like, "That's right on point," because we cannot dwell on the path. We need to keep moving. Yes. Keep moving forward.
Jennie:
Thank you.
Carolina:
No, thank you Jennie. Gracious.
Jennie:
Thanks for listening. Visit careers.boozallen.com to learn how you can be unstoppable with Booz Allen. Be the future. Work with us. The world can't wait.