FORE! Rising Latina LPGA Star Soaring Your Way

By Esperanza Urbaez,  Latina Style Magazine, Vol.15, No. 3, 2009

Nicole Hage Photo Courtesy of Play Golf Designs, INC

Long day, me and my pup CJ are ready to snuggle Night Friends!” tweets Florida native Nicole Hage, 23, to her 1,048 followers on Twitter.com which includes world-renowned professional golf players, coaches, media, family from her Cuban mother’s side and from her Italian-Lebanese father’s side, and golf enthusiasts.

They know she is one of today’s brightest rising stars coming up in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). “I know I can be the best,” says the determined golfer. Not only are they her admirers but most are part of the team that has supported, inspired, and believed in Hage throughout her ascending journey that began at a young age in Coral Springs, FL. Today the young professional golf player has determined to make it to the top of her game.

Peggy Llewellyn Flying on Two Wheels

By Esperanza Urbaez, LATINA Style magazine, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2009

On this sunny but cool March day at the National Hot Rod Asso c iation Spring Nationals in Houston, Texas the thunderous motors from the zooming bikes on the slick black race track make the 35-year-old Peggy Llewellyn (loo-ellen) say, “Oh, I want to be out there so bad.” Although, lamenting the fact that she did not expect the chill in the air and was under dressed, the pure passion this Pro Stock Motorcycle drag racer and native Texan has for this sport counters the chill and burns within.

Shockingly, she fears roller coasters. (“It’s something about going really fast, up and down,” she says.) However, for all else she is a 5-foot-2, 115 pound fearless female racer who is the first Black and Hispanic woman ever to win a National Hot Rod Association race in 2007 in Dallas and who has persevered despite all the challenges and detours she has faced. Taking her love for racing, drawing from the strength and support of her family and friends and believing that quitting is never an option, Llewellyn is living proof that dreams—no matter how far—can always be reached.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… Supermom!

By Esperanza Urbaez, LATINA Style magazine, Vol.15 No.2, 2009

Living among us are women who balance the world in the palm of their hands. They are top executives and successful CEO’s of multimillion dollar corporations; role models to many; raising strong families as loving wives, sisters, daughters, aunts, cousins, grandmothers, and mothers: and fabulous with every hat they wear. They are superwomen.

And they are everywhere. According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, women-owned firms employ nearly 13 million people and generate $1.9 trillion in sales. Between 1997 and 2006, majority women-owned firms (51 percent or more women-owned) grew at twice the rate of all firms (42 percent vs. 24 percent). The number of Hispanic working women in the U.S. workforce exceeds seven and a half million, and the numbers continue to rise. Many of those ventures were started not only by women, but by women who are mothers. These entrepreneurs and executives who are also mothers are trying to help not only themselves, but other women as well.

As even Superman had his own secrets behind the ‘S’, so do these strong and successful superwomen. Learn how these phenomenal women find balance in their lives, deal with stress, and make the most of their experience of being mothers. Follow their steps and you can surely be a spectacular supermom. It’s as easy as ABC!

Latina Soundboard From the C-Suite to a Seat on the Board

It seems like every other week the U.S. Government is bailing out another industry in order to prevent the ever-looming collapse of the economy. First the major banks and investment bank stocks, then mortgage lenders and the auto industry. More recently, the entertainment industry has even made its bid for a hefty handout. Today the economic downturn the U.S is facing is in hands of the nations’ top corporate executives and needless to say, corporate boards of the industries play an important role in oversight and decision-making. This is why the scrutiny of the selection and make-up of the nation’s top public corporations is ever more crucial to all citizens in this growing global economy and diversity on corporate boards is ever more important.

By Esperanza Urbaez, LATINA Style Magazine, Vol.15 No. 1, 2009 

LATINA Style Business Series New York

As millions of New Yorkers rushed on to the daily grind, hundreds of savvy, powerful and not to mention, fabulous Latina professionals from aspiring novices to seasoned CEO’s descended upon the capital of the world to invest in their future. The entrepreneurial spirit and the busy excitement at the heart of New York City—Times Square—was reflected onto the 10th Annual LATINA Style Business Series event, the premiere business development program for women in the nation held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on May 15th.

By Esperanza Urbaez, LATINA Style Magazine

LATINAS IN THE MEDIA

“Latinas in the Media” event, I founded, organized and hosted in collaboration with the Latino Honor Society of Hunter College is held annually in the Spring. This event is meant to provide students the opportunity to hear from and speak with Latina women who have gained success in the media industry and to celebrate their accomplishments not just as women and as members of the Latino community, but as professionals. It is essential at a time in history when our quality of life is so greatly affected by the media and when such a small percentage of the media is produced or controlled by minorities and/or females to create and support events and organizations that are at the forefront of changing this reality. Below please find the “all-star” line up for the past two years.  Details for the 2009 3rd Annual Latinas in the Media Forum below.

The Fellowship, Inc. Newsletter

Please view the 2008 winter newsletter containing information about the 2007-2008 language immersion programs for The Fellowship, Inc., an educational travel company. I was exclusively commissioned to produce, write, and layout this newsletter.

Personality of the Month: Nia Raquelle Smith

During this period of midterms and upcoming finals, the biggest stress many Hunter College students face is balancing a schedule full of classes, exams, work, study, and perhaps a social life. But stress can constitute far greater struggles. For Media Studies student Nia Raquelle Smith, 22, life suddenly became hyper-real several years ago when she had to fight for her life. Though barely able to walk from a falling accident, she faced deployment to serve as a sailor in the Iraq War. From her suicidal attempts to trying to get pregnant to avoid the service, Smith’s experience in the United States military was wrought with drama, intrigue and perseverance. She is our Personality of the Month.

 

By Esperanza Urbaez, The Word Print

Tug-of-war Over Richman Turf Rages On

Hunter College officials’ plans to take over the Julia Richman Education Complex to install a state of the art science center for the Science and Health departments has current occupants of the nearby complex, a variety of independent educational institutions, up in arms.

by Esperanza Urbaez, The Word Print

The Writings on the Walls

 Living in the Unites States of America it is easy to be plagued by the epidemic of indifference, obliviousness, and closed-mindedness toward the rest of the planet that has affected many of us.

by Esperanza Urbaez, MARCH 2007