bio
professional background
For twelve years, the hospitality industry was my life. I worked in various
luxury hotels and resorts, where service was THE priority.
The most well known of these hotels is the Hotel del Coronado, affectionately known as “The Del.” In the nine years I spent at the Del, the most rewarding position I had was as Signature Services Manager. My main responsibility was taking care of the Del’s VIP’s, which included celebrities and dignitaries. Talk about fun and insane all wrapped up in one!
I gave up the hotel business in 2004, to try and find a career that would allow me to lead a more "normal" life. Although my job was incredibly fun and exciting, waiting for bands to check in at 3am and spending Christmas day at work every year, started to take its toll.
I quickly discovered that nothing out there satisfied me quite like the hospitality industry. In the twelve years in the industry I had a total of three jobs. In the first year out of the industry, I lost count, but I think I had five or six jobs. It was an absolute disaster! Everything I tried was missing that "it" factor that motivated me to really care about the job and the company and to do the best job I could possibly do.
So, while I was working a ridiculous amount of hours in the television industry, I decided that I wanted to work for myself. I sat down to figure out what type of things I wanted to do, what I was good at and what there might be a market for.
In 2005 I started IN A PINCH, a personal assistant/concierge service for busy professionals. I had the background for it and definitely enjoyed it! But this wasn’t enough for me, so I decided that I also needed to use a few of my other skills. This is when I started planning and managing events, dabbling in interior design as well as teaching Spanish.
To be honest with you, teaching Spanish was an after thought. It was my first language, so I never really thought of it as a skill, but just as a language I use to communicate with my family. But I remembered how much I enjoyed tutoring my classmates in high school and how much I enjoyed using my Spanish when I worked for the Migrant Education Program in Pennsylvania, so I decided, why not?
I put an ad on Craigslist and got my first student, who happened to be traveling to Chile, where I am from, a few months later. We started classes right away and I have to say that I fell in love with teaching immediately! I started going crazy buying Spanish books, putting together lesson plans and practically eating, drinking and sleeping in Spanish! I was just so excited to be able to teach someone my language, that I quickly realized that I had found my new passion.
So in the next year I started teaching more and more and spending less and less time as a personal assistant and event planner. In early 2007 I started offering small group conversational classes, which became so popular that by the summer of 2007 I had to rent an office to teach out of. So I am happy to say that I am now dedicating all of my time to teaching Spanish to beginners, helping intermediate students get to the next level and providing a place for advanced students to practice their Spanish! And the best part of it all is that I have a found an extremely rewarding career that I am incredibly passionate about, while meeting some of the most amazing people in the world! I am truly one lucky chica!
on a personal note
I was born in Chile, South America in 1970. I lived in Chile until
the late 70’s and then moved to New York with my parents. We
soon settled in a suburb of Philadelphia and I stayed there until 1993, when
I came to San Diego on vacation and fell in love with it. I went home
immediately, packed everything I could possibly fit into my tiny little car
and drove back as quickly as possible! I did leave San Diego for 3
years, due to a job offer I couldn’t refuse, but I am back!
I am happy to be married to my soulmate, best friend, incredibly cute, and inspiring husband, Dusty. We have three beautiful, furry, crazy, four-legged children, Frida & Diego, our Deerhead Chihuahuas and Lola, our completely looney Chiweiner! The perfect little family :)