Project NextGen

Gerardo Perez is the son of two Mexican immigrants from Cuamio, Michoacan, Mexico. He is a first-generation college graduate and the first one to venture into the corporate world. Gerardo grew up in Dalton, Georgia and upon finishing high school attended Georgia State University, where he graduated with degrees in Finance and Real Estate. He is now an investment banking analyst in the leveraged finance group at Bank of America, based out of New York.

Octavio Jesus Aguado is an alumnus of the University of North Georgia where he studied Biology. He currently works at Valdosta State University as a Residence Hall Director. He is in a master’s program of Higher Education Leadership. He also volunteers as a graduation coach for high school students with the Hispanic Organization Promoting Education. He hopes to work with the Board of Regents of the University of Georgia because he wants to instil changes within undocumented student policies. 

Jonathan Vázquez García is a Mexican, First Generation, DACA, and 4th-year student at Georgia State University. Jonathan majors in Public Health with a concentration in Pre-Med. He is very passionate about medicine and public health and how it can help the Latinx community in many ways. Jonathan aspires to become a Cardiothoracic Surgeon and help the Latinx community by creating access to medical resources and services that impede undocumented and end medical disparities found in his community. He hopes to obtain my MPH from John Hopkins and later get his MD from NYU.

Kelly Nguyen is the proud daughter of two first-generation Vietnamese-Americans. As the first college graduate in my family, she considers herself both an Atlanta and Charlotte native. Kelly is pursuing her Juris Doctorate at Emory Law, class of 2023. When she is not studying, she spends her time weightlifting and planning my next travel trip!

Fortune is a Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University graduate. He found himself interested in helping healthcare and mission-driven organizations improve their cybersecurity challenges and overall security posture. Fortune currently works at Protiviti as a Senior Technology Consultant under the Security & Privacy department. Fortune wants to ensure that the right information is getting to the right people, to make the right decision at the right time for the patients we serve.

A servant leader, Fortune is the co-founder of a not for profit organization, The Just Focus Foundation. We are millennial philanthropists with a passion for serving and empowering others. Each year we create multiple large service projects that will help those who are disfranchised. Fortune is also a proud member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated.

Daniela Uribe is a first-generation sophomore at Stanford University, where she plans to major in Engineering Physics with a minor in Italian. She strives to become an engineer or academic who can inspire others with similar upbringings. Daniela recounts her experiences growing up as a Chicana and as the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants, and how this and other influential people in her life motivated her to become a first-gen college student.

Bryson Henriott is a first-generation college student from Vidalia, Georgia. Currently, he is attending the University of Georgia majoring in Political Science, Public Relations, and Communication Studies with the hopes of attending law school and working within politics and advocacy. Coming from a very rural area of South Georgia where he graduated with fourteen students to now attending the University of Georgia with 35k students was a huge transition but has afforded him many opportunities. He has worked on several congressional campaigns, in the office of his state senator, and for his county manager looking at local government on the inside. Bryson is currently a Senator for the Student Government Association at the University of Georgia, the treasurer for RISE (Rural Students Igniting Success in Education), serves on University Council, and is an Involvement Ambassador at the University of Georgia. Bryson to use my background to continue to develop my leadership skills and foster change in this country.

Noel Salaices is a first-generation student who graduated from Georgia State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and a minor in Film/Videos studies. He is the son of Mexican immigrant parents who moved to the big city to pursue a college degree. Throughout his time at Georgia State, he interned for various companies in the entertainment and sports industries and currently works as a distribution coordinator for WarnerMedia. This episode looks into his journey as a first-generation Mexican-American college student and how he learned ways to navigate life as a Latino in corporate America. 

Sebastian Puerta is an alumnus of the University of Georgia where he studied economics. He currently works at Opportunity Insights, an economics research lab at Harvard University, where he works with Professor Raj Chetty to study upward mobility in the United States. Sebastian hopes to get his Ph.D. in economics and become a professor. He plans to use the insights obtained from his research to advocate for better and smarter policies to tackle poverty, inequality, and the lack of upward mobility in America.

Jeremiah de Sesto is a first-generation Filipino-American and a current honors student at the University of Georgia pursuing degrees in International Affairs and Management Information Systems with an emphasis in International Business. Jeremiah has served as the National President of National Beta, the largest independent educational youth organization in the United States, co-founded Cover to Cover, a state-wide youth non-profit initiative, and has worked as a senior and junior intern for three major national campaigns, and more currently as a Staff Assistant at the Georgia General Assembly and House of Representatives. This episode will look into how Jeremiah uses his experiences to instill a passion for servant leadership, youth empowerment, and public service, and how he wants to pursue a career in advocating for the common rights of all people while positively effecting socio-economic factors.