My name is Antía Vázquez and I’m a Mexican/Spanish Junior studying in the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business. I was born and raised in Mexico City, however my family is from Galicia. Growing up, I believe I had a very culturally-diverse experience. Similarly, having a mother that is a banker and a father that is an interior designer helped develop the diverse set of interests I have today.
During high school (and then my freshman and sophomore years at Penn) I was a very passionate classical ballet dancer, which allowed me to travel to places like Spain and Cuba for courses or competitions. I have always had a strong interest in transforming Mexico and for that reason was involved in a few social development initiatives. My sophomore summer, I worked as a volunteer for the International Board of Books for Youth (IBBY)foundation and my junior summer working for the strategy department at Compartamos Bank, the largest microfinance bank in Latin America. All of these experiences lead me to look for a college program that allowed me to pursue not only a rigorous business education, but further the possibility to explore cross-cultural perspectives. I found that the Huntsman program a wonderful mixture of both of these interests.
As a Huntsman student, I am a French target and hence spent my freshman summer in the abroad program, Penn-In-tours, and then went abroad my sophomore spring to Lyon, France. The latter was the most eye-opening, inspiring semester of my life, as I made some extraordinary friends with whom I travelled, had fun, and fully immersed ourselves into embracing French culture. Similarly, in Wharton I’m concentrating in Management and Decision Processes. Other areas of interest include behavioral economics, psychology, art history, and modern French history.
(Moving on to something more fun..!) My biggest extracurricular involvement on campus is Wharton Latino, one of the largest undergraduate associations on campus. Wharton Latino seeks to provide students from Latin America or students with an interest in the region with social, professional, and philanthropy opportunities. I’ve met some of my closest friends through this club. We are a very tight community of people with similar backgrounds, yet very diverse interests. I’m also involved with the Mexican association on campus (Mex@Penn) and as a sophomore I was a research assistant at the Baker Retailing center at Wharton. Other things I like to do in my free time include dancing, yoga, running, going downtown to explore restaurants, boutiques and galleries, and cooking.
I truly hope this blog will give you a glimpse into the myriad opportunities that Penn has to offer and that it excites you to apply and perhaps come here!
