Bottom Line

Yulyssa Diaz
Talent Acquisition Specialist, Enterprise Holdings 
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Class of 2017 

I was born and raised in Dorchester, MA. Both my parents immigrated from the Dominican Republic and have worked hard to provide for our family, instilling in me and my sister the value of family, consistency, and finding a place we can call home from a young age. I was part of the METCO Program (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) from kindergarten through high school, and took a bus to Wellesley, MA to school every day. I believe that being one of the few students of color in my class helped build my character and the person I am today. 

I learned about Bottom Line when I was a sophomore in high school, after my sister went through Bottom Line’s Access program during her senior year of high school. Even though my sister was already involved with Bottom Line, I was still nervous to learn more and enroll but my Bottom Line Advisor truly made me feel comfortable. With the help of their guidance, I applied, was accepted, and enrolled at UMass Dartmouth. I always excelled at math in school and wanted something that I was good at and had passion for, so I chose to study Finance.  

 Throughout college, I focused on building my resume and skills to achieve my goal of becoming an accountant. My Advisor was a great source of support, helping me look for employment opportunities that would help diversify my resume. One of those opportunities was at Enterprise, where I applied for the Management Trainee Internship program during my junior year. Unfortunately, I did not land the role. However, this experience had a big impact and taught me to have an open mind and learn from every “no” or “not right now”. After the initial rejection for the internship, I was very hesitant to apply for the Management Trainee Program again. I was also still focused on finance and was narrowing my job search, not wanting to expand my options. 

Thankfully, and with encouragement from my Advisor, I didn’t let this doubt and hesitation hold me back. I reapplied for the program and got in! And I am proud that since going through the wonderful Management Trainee Program, I have built my career at Enterprise Holdings after graduating college, currently serving as their Talent Acquisition Specialist.  

I listened to the advice of my Bottom Line Advisor and applied for the program, and 6 years later I have an amazing career with an amazing company! At Enterprise, I love the work culture and my team which now includes some of my best friends. At Enterprise, we hire great people and it’s a pleasure to work with them every day. I love that I get to be a mentor for people who look like me and I’m inspired to be able to set an example for all employees, specifically females of color who join the team. 

I believe that Bottom Line’s relationship with corporate partners like Enterprise is impactful as it gives students and alumni the opportunity to learn about career options they may not have known about before, and to apply to roles with a guarantee of having their resumes reviewed. Over the past six years, 49 Bottom Line students have been hired as interns or in full-time roles at Enterprise, including 18 through the Management Trainee Program. 

On my career journey, I have learned how to turn “weaknesses” into strengths. Growing up, I was always loud and outspoken and I didn’t know how to channel that. Learning how to use my loudness to advocate for myself and others and step into my own power has been my greatest challenge but greatest reward. 

Worcester State University, Class of 2017

Andrew came to Bottom Line as a high school junior and stayed with us through college.

“The Access program was really helpful in keeping me on track with the application process. I appreciated that my advisor guided me and didn’t tell me what to do.”

As a Success student with Bottom Line, Andrew appreciated the opportunities we provided him for career exploration. “My advisors pushed me and recommended that I attend various events that Bottom Line hosted. Attending the different events helped me figure out what I might be interested in and where I might see myself in the future.”

After graduating from Worcester State with a degree in Business Administration and Economics, Andrew joined State Street Global Advisors. He found the opportunity at Bottom Line Go Far Forum. He connected with a representative at the career fair portion of the eventand got an internship. That internship turned into a full-time position.

At State Street, Andrew learned about what it means to be a professional and how to lead and manage projects. He learned how to work cross-functionally to come up with solutions to improve processes and systems.

Ultimately, though, State Street restructured, and his position was impacted. This allowed him to evaluate what he learned about his role at State Street and how it aligned with his career goals and aspirations.

Andrew is now working at CVS Health as a Senior Strategy Consultant in Product Development and loves it. His team is working on a new product to improve the patient experience. His team has taken the new product from just a very manual process to building out the right operational infrastructure to support the growth of the service, and it has been thrilling. It’s been exhilarating to see the product grow and evolve, and also to see CVS Health is positioning itself in the future of healthcare.

“I’m still figuring out what I want to do when I grow up, but this experience has shown me I want to stay in the realm of product development and entrepreneurship. I am essentially learning how to grow a business and maybe one day I might start my own business.”

Andrew is considering the possibility of going back to grad school at some point in the future.

“Pursuing a college education has really prepared me to enter the workforce and give me a better understanding of what I want to do in life.  A college education allowed me to take part in experiential learning opportunities, such as studying abroad and internships. It’s given me a choice.”

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.

“I choose Bottom Line because they make it happen. They practice what they preach – you can see it. They tell you they can help, and they do it, and they’re honest. They make things work with very little. It’s an organization that backs up what they say, and I’m thrilled to be a part of that.”

Rich Pierre joined Bottom Line when he was a teenager attending Boston Latin Academy.

Going into senior year, I was mainly focused on athletics — football and basketball. Sports were my passion, and I didn’t consider college until a BLA classmate mentioned that she knew someone who had worked with Bottom Line and had positive results. I explored Bottom Line because of her suggestion, and it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

At Bottom Line, I found a vibrant community of advisors, peers, and mentors who all wanted me to find success. While my parents were invested in seeing me do well, going to college had never been pushed very much. It was at Bottom Line that I realized the importance of a college degree, and what that could mean for my future.

My advisor, Sarah Place, was the catalyst to encourage me to look at some schools. Sarah was willing to work around my busy athletics schedule and made sure I had no excuses as I weighed my options.

“Rich struggled with finding the time to work on applications during the fall. He was playing on his high school’s football team, so he had practice almost every day and even had games on Saturdays, so it was difficult to meet in person. We did some work by phone and email and then when football season was over he came in almost every week for six weeks until he finished all his applications,” said Place.

Sarah’s motivational phone calls helped alleviate my concerns and kept me accountable. Her patience helped draw my college essay out of me – teaching me how to express myself. Her mentorship and guidance through all aspects of the application process allowed me to apply feeling confident.

When he got his acceptance letters and financial aid awards, he concluded that he wanted to go to Bentley, but the cost was a little restrictive. His parents wanted him to consider UMass Lowell because he would have had almost a $0 balance, but he was determined to make Bentley work.

“He applied to dozens of scholarships. Fortunately, that year Bottom Line was managing a scholarship through the Hayden Foundation, and we nominated him for a $4,000 scholarship which made Bentley possible for him to afford. He never lost sight of his goals, and his determination paid off,” said Place.

Rich continued working with Bottom Line throughout his college journey.

The mentorship and guidance I found from my advisors were integral. I knew that Bottom Line would always have my back. One of the supports that stuck out most was the open phone line that Bottom Line had. I could call the office, and talk to someone – anyone – and they were willing and ready to answer my questions.

Bottom Line also supported me as I applied for a scholarship to study abroad in Barcelona, a life-changing experience. I hadn’t traveled over the Atlantic ocean at that point, but the challenge I found as I learned about new cultures and people took me out of my comfort zone and taught me that I could push myself further than I had ever known.

While in college Bottom Line helped Rich work in five different internships – giving him valuable career experience that he could use to his benefit upon graduation. Rich worked in a few different roles right out of college, and his career path led him to attend grad school at Bentley. He now works for PAREXEL International as a Senior Analyst.

When I was younger, I thought I was going to be in the NFL or NBA. In the neighborhood I grew up in, you’re taught that athletics or rapping were the way to get out. Bottom Line smacked me in the face with reality. This may not be the career path I expected, but I am grateful for where I am today.

Rich continued to choose Bottom Line after he graduated, becoming a Go Far volunteer, a Board of Visitors member, and now a Regional Board member. 

I continue to choose Bottom Line to this day because I want to show students and future board members that the Bottom Line model works. Sometimes students don’t want to listen to their advisors, but I hope that sharing my story will motivate students to find the same success I have. Bottom Line has confidently gotten me to achieve what they told me I would. It’s not a lie. I want to share that story.

I choose Bottom Line because they make it happen. They practice what they preach – you can see it. They tell you they can help, and they do it, and they’re honest. They make things work with very little. It’s an organization that backs up what they say, and I’m thrilled to be a part of that.

Jismaly Mejia: Alumni Board Member

Advice I have for Bottom Line Alumni: “In order to pass along career advice to the Bottom Line Alumni community, it is important for me to reflect back on how I got to where I am today. Throughout high school, college and today, my support systems have always managed to expand beyond my family and friends. Fortunately, my supports included a variety of amazing organizations, such as Bottom Line, where my personal and professional network grew. Within these organizations, I have been able to experience a multitude of roles, such as a student and alum, a volunteer, an intern, a partner, a mentor/mentee, and much more. Through these roles, I have been able to explore educational and career options, collaborate and network with diverse individuals, and inspire youth in a variety of ways.

With that being said, I encourage all Bottom Line alumni to expand their horizons by seeking new opportunities through creating meaningful networks with those that surround them. Growth happens the moment you step outside of your comfort zone!”

Grace Tan: Alumni Board Member

Why I am proud to be a Bottom Line Alum:

“I proudly tell people that I am a part of this network because of all the good work Bottom Line does for its students and the community. I have been through the Bottom Line program from high school until college graduation, and I don’t believe that I would be as successful as I am today without Bottom Line. The staff at Bottom Line truly wants to help students get into college and prosper academically and personally. I’m very thankful that this organization is part of my life and I hope it continues to impact others the same way.”

Advice I have for Bottom Line Alumni:

“My best piece of advice to any alum would be this: If you are faced with an issue that is important to you and there are two solutions presented to you, go for the more difficult one. In life it’s always tempting take the easy way out, but down the line when you reflect on your choices, you will regret that you didn’t try harder.”

Edwin Gonzalez: Alumni Board Member

Why I am proud to be a Bottom Line Alum:

“I really value community and all the aspects that make a strong community. I’m proud to be an alum of Bottom Line because BL is a community organization centered around providing crucial resources in Boston and throughout the country. That’s also why I’m so excited to have joined the alumni board in order to build a community around BL alumni.”

Advice I have for Bottom Line Alumni:

“Take risks! Challenge yourself by taking on new and interesting opportunities. It doesn’t always have to be about your career either. Take on a new hobby or finally get around to doing that thing you’ve always wanted to do.”

        Daniel Figueiredo                 Alumni Board Member

Why I am proud to be a Bottom Line alum:

I am proud to be a Bottom Line alum because it means that I am part of a group of people that defied the odds to get where they are. Every Bottom Line student had above average obstacles in their life, but through determination, will, and support from Bottom Line we are in positions to do great things.

What advice I have for Bottom Line Alumni:

Advice I would give to Bottom Line Alumni is to get involved with Bottom Line and with your community. It’s important to stay grounded in what helped you get where you are today and to help others have similar opportunities.

BL Alum & Access Team Manager
ShaCara Telemaque

What is your experience as an alumni who is now working at Bottom Line:

“Being a former student, counselor, and now a manager Bottom Line has shown me that the interactions that we have with our students today, can greatly influence who they become later. As a student, my relationship with my counselors were the highlights of the program, besides the financial aid support. Bottom Line has done an amazing job of picking staff that genuinely want to support students—and that’s exactly why I wanted to work here. It’s an amazing feeling to see a student’s relief when they know they’ll be taken care of at Bottom Line, just like I was.”

What advice do you have for Bottom Line Alumni:

“Share the knowledge and skills that you further developed while being involved in Bottom Line and after. If your job involves recruiting, tell Bottom Line. If you want to do some volunteer hours, tell Bottom Line. Remember, current students are looking for life experiences and professional development just like you were. No one is a better expert at life beyond high school than you, so share your story!”

Yaritza Peña
Alumni Board Member

Why I am proud to be a Bottom Line Alum …

“Bottom line values developing meaningful relationships with their students and other stakeholders, and I am proud to be a part of an organization that genuinely cares about the success of all its students. I can personally attest to this as I have always felt supported and encouraged by the staff and my counselors. I also owe a lot to Bottom Line for noticing systemic injustices and actively doing something about it. As an alum, I have witnessed firsthand the powerful impact of the organization’s mission and alumni. Bottom Line boldly provides a voice to those without a microphone.”

What advice I have for Bottom Line Alumni …

“Take the time to learn about yourself, and truly figure out what you want to do, and what your passions are. From there, develop short and long term goals, and push yourself to find concrete ways to accomplish them. Lastly, never forget those who helped you along the way, and be there to help push them in the direction of their dreams as well.”