Bottom Line

by Heriberto Valadez, Class of 2019, Graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago

When I was asked to give a speech for this event, I didn’t hesitate to say yes because, as I’ve said on numerous occasions before, I will never be able to thank Bottom Line enough for all they have done for me in these past 5 years.

I know it sounds cliché, but it feels like it was yesterday when I walked in the Bottom Line office for the first time and I saw my Bottom Line advisor sitting down next to a table with her laptop open, waiting for me to show up to our meeting.

I remember being a little nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. To be completely honest, I felt kind of lost at the time. I had recently graduated from high school, and although I did pretty well in school, college wasn’t something that I was really prepared for, and I was fearful.

I don’t know exactly how many people can relate to this, but at first, I felt like I was in college because of mere luck. I used to think my personal statement on my college application was alright. I believed that whoever was in charge of deciding who was accepted felt a little bad for this kid and said, “you know what let’s give him a chance and take his money.”

But what I’ve always said, and I will keep saying, is that the most significant impact that Bottom Line had on me was cultivating my belief that I had what it takes to be successful and since then it has been my duty to prove them right.

Bottom Line always encouraged me to use all of the resources I had, including my academic advisors at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). But if I have to be completely honest, I always felt more comfortable reaching out to my advisors at Bottom Line for any type of question that I had. They always made me feel like it was okay to ask for help.

I can go into many specifics, but the best of all was knowing that I wasn’t completely alone in my college journey. I could be like “Hey I don’t know how to do this, I don’t know how to apply for FAFSA, please help me because I don’t have thousands of dollars under my mattress.” And thanks to Bottom Line, today I’m completely debt-free.

I always had the opportunity to meet new people through Bottom Line. For example, I was able to network with people who were already working in the real world. It was at the last fundraising event where I met Luke, who works in sales at LinkedIn. He invited me over to the LinkedIn offices for breakfast. I learned a few things from him like the importance of getting to know people and learning from them. I got to see how cool the LinkedIn offices were. They were very clean and modern. They had free breakfast! I remember telling myself, “wow, I would really like to work in an environment like this.”

Luckily, in the end, I was able to accomplish that now that I’m working sales at GrubHub. Their offices are very nice too, and I love it there. My advisor called me days after I graduated and basically said, “Hey Heriberto, don’t think that because you graduated we’re going to throw you to the wolves and say good luck! No, what’s your plan, and how can we help you?” And that right there was everything! I was applying to jobs, and my advisor was helping me with the process by reaching out and saying, “Hey Heriberto just tell all of them that you really want the job but don’t accept anything until you’re able to see clearly all your options on the table.”

She helped me to understand how to manage all that and how to understand offer letters and benefits. All of us at certain moments feel lost, but it is people like those who work at Bottom Line who can change the future of a person.

Sometimes I want to put in the effort and be successful, but I don’t know how to do it, and that can stop me. Having the right resources and people supporting me helps to keep me moving forward in the right direction. Throughout my college journey, I was able to pick up a few skills from people, like how to stay organized and focused. Thanks to those skills, I was able to graduate and find a job that I enjoy! But I’m aware that it is very easy for things not to go as well as they did. I could’ve stayed at the restaurant working long and tiring hours. I would still have been earning a living, but I knew there were greater opportunities for me and Bottom Line guided me toward those greater opportunities, and I’m excited about the future.

I know this is just the beginning and at 22 years old, I have so much to learn, but I have faith that things will play out well because they always have. Right now I just want to go up on the sales chart and see the numbers increase. I want to see what can happen if I put my mind to it. At this point, I’m very proud of myself, and I hope that you as my advisors are proud of me as well because, at the end of the day, my accomplishments are your accomplishments too! So from the bottom of my heart, thank you, to you all and to all the people who make Bottom Line possible.