by Gordon Nary
Gordon: Where were you born and what is one of your happiest memories as a child?
Juan: I was born in Bucaramanga, Colombia. The happiest memory I have as a child is when my father when my father taught me how to drive. I still remember how scared he was, and how fast I was going!
Gordon: When did you attend Catholic University of America, what degree did you earn, what was your favorite course, and why was it your favorite?
Juan: I am about to graduate in May 13th. I majored in Finance and Business Administration. My favorite course was Financial modeling, and it was my favorite because the topics were interesting, the professor has a great knowledge of modeling, and I found that I have a talent when working with excel and finance.
Gordon: Did you play sports in college/ If so which ones?
Juan: Yes I did, tennis all my four years in college.
Gordon: When did you work in Human Resources and Payroll at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and what were your primary responsibilities?
Juan: I was part of the Kennedy Center last year, from September to December. I assisted with a marketing strategy utilizing LinkedIn incentives and Instagram to increase diversity in hiring by 15%, created an excel model utilizing coding which shows the expected and optimal number of employees per season and per year depending on the federal budget, also collaborated with the time management of large events and the organization of performers to decrease time consumption by 25 seconds, and created advertising utilizing CorelDraw Graphics for large events and meetings increasing attendance by 25%.
Gordon: When did you work as Host at Expo and what did you enjoy most about your work?
Juan: I am still working as an Expo at Murphy’s, which is in the university. I enjoy the people that I work with, the large amount of tickets that come into the kitchen, and that I am able to communicate with everyone in different languages.
Gordon: Please share with our readers an overview of your professional tennis career.
Juan: I started playing when I was 7 years old. I played in some courts in front of my house for about 1 year before transferring to a bigger academy. When I turned 9-10, I was already playing around the country with the best. That was my life until I turned 16, because I started to play international and professional tournaments before coming to the USA.
Gordon: Thanks for a great interview.