{I am a sponsored blogger ambassador for Verizon. All opinions are my own.}
Hispanic Heritage Month. I love the celebrations. I don’t love that for most people, it’s only one month. Learning about our heritage and where we come from is extremely important. Take it from me, I had the ultimate cultural identity crisis until I dug deep and educated myself on my heritage. Let’s talk about some ways we can educate ourselves and celebrate who we are today and cultivate our heritage for tomorrow.
I’ve made some changes around here. After all, the only constant is change. The first is that ¿Qué Means What+ is now listed as a blogger ambassador for Verizon. (I’ll share more later on how the transition has been.) Second, I’m back to being a full-time solopreneur! That’s one of the reasons why I’m already happy to be a part of this familia of bloggers sharing about this powerful wireless network.
In this Insiders Guide post, Verizon also encourages you to cultivate your heritage of tomorrow with some ways you can use the power of Verizon’s largest and most reliable 4G LTE network. These are four efforts that I supported even before joining the #VZWBuzz familia. This is a great match already, queridos!
- Start a Business
- Science/Innovation
- Film
- Music
Start a Business – I had been a solopreneur for almost four years until I took a part-time gig at a digital agency over the summer. While it was an incredible experience with an amazing team, it’s time once again to put the focus on my dream of growing a media company.
Latinas are underrepresented as business owners, especially among the Fortune 500 companies. However, ownership among Latina entrepreneurs has grown immensely over the past 15 years. americanprogress.org
With Verizon’s tools and service, all my online documents are at my fingertips on my Galaxy Note 3 when I’m on the go. This is a huge benefit for this working mom. Do you own a business? Isn’t it important to be able to access important information even if you are on the go?
Science/Innovation (STEM) – Championing for more Latino students is important to me because I understand the need for STEM skill in tomorrow’s (and today’s) workforce. Remember earlier this year when I was asking for votes to get me and my friends on the SXSW panel “How Latina Moms Are Raising NextGen Coders”? I’m serious about this.
This year Verizon named a multi-cultural team from Resaca Middle School in Los Fresnos, Texas, (yep, TEXAS y’all) whose members built an app to help a blind classmate navigate their school and other buildings the winner of this year’s The Verizon Innovation App Challenge. THAT is making it possible for our young students to not only engage in technology but create technology! Could you imagine what the students in your life would do if they had all the necessary resources and technology?
Film – We need more Latinos to tell our stories through film. That’s not a secret. Who can tell our stories better than us? Let’s get more Latinos behind the scenes as producers and writers as well as in front of the cameras. Film is important in cultivating our heritage for tomorrow. All of the short films we create today for social media or to live on You Tube are still a part of our stories. Keep making them, queridos! Or start today.
Verizon helps to provide the technology need to create film without the expensive equipment. You can get started with cameras on your smartphones or even remote-controlled drone like the one mentioned in Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and Beyond with Mobile Tech.
Using my Verizon-powered Samsung Galaxy 3 Note, I recorded this video and my entire American Latino Expedition Trip to the Grand Teton National Park. I have my entire #ALEx14 story documented with photos and video to share with my friends and family.
With as much conviction as I started this blog to share stories about our heritage, I look forward to celebrate with you the stories of today and tomorrow. Hispanic Heritage month doesn’t have to be just one month when you see the power of using technology to cultivate your heritage of tomorrow.
