I grew up understanding what it means to be overlooked. Not in some abstract way you read about — I mean the kind of invisible that follows you into classrooms and job interviews and conversations where people talk right past you. That experience shaped everything I do today. I founded Dream Builder because I watched hearing-impaired people in Haiti get pushed to the margins of a world that was too loud and too busy to notice them. I refused to let that stand. Building programs and services for that community taught me something that no university ever could — when you fight for someone else's voice, you discover your own.

I spent three years teaching hearing-impaired students at Escuela Nacional Para Sordos in Santo Domingo, DR, and every single one of those students taught me more about resilience than any book on my shelf. When I joined the U.S. Army in 2015, I carried that same fire with me. The military did not soften me. It sharpened the part of me that already knew how to push through when quitting made more sense. I earned my business degree from Columbia Southern University and I am currently pursuing my master's in organizational leadership — not because I collect degrees, but because every tool I pick up is a tool I can hand to someone else who is struggling to build a life that matters.