Bring a piece of yourself into everything you do so you can be a role model for others like you.
Yexenia Gómez is a renowned culinary director and educator who helps bring health and nutrition education to underprivileged people in her community. Working with businesses and children alike, Yexenia's passion is empowering people to feel more confident and creative in nourishing themselves.
There is a tragic lack of diversity in the education sector, leaving a cultural understanding gap in fundamental services like academics, social work and nutritionists. This is why it is so important to stop adjusting yourself for other people in your industry and to represent your authentic self and your culture.
No matter our differences, our basic needs and values are the same, so we need to start advocating for others and ensuring that the nuances of their cultural needs are represented and accessible. Be a mentor for others who share your background by showing up as yourself everywhere you go!
Notes:
🌞 Yexenia is a great friend, a supervisor for community educators focusing on wellness and nutrition, and an amazing chef.
01:09⚡ Emigrating from El Salvador to NY: empowering her culture through food and her life.
03:37🌮 Feeling like being the only one in the room: the need to talk about and elevate her culture.
06:23🇸🇻 Living on the farm in El Salvador as a kid: dark and light memories of growing up.
10:41😇 College days in NYU and struggles to pay for education: finding her tribe and family in college.
15:31😍 Being a pioneer and a role model in her family: being on the cover of People en Español and empowering people with her story.
18:08🍏 Wellness and getting diagnosed with type two diabetes: helping her community get healthier.
20:43🍽️ Before colonialism, Philippine cuisine was much healthier: teaching children to visualize their plates with ‘real food’.
22:33👩🏽🍳 Cooking every night to get more energy and good food: moderation and accumulating bad food.
29:09👉🏾 The importance of having more Black and Latino nutritionists.
30:40⚠️ We choose careers based on our childhood wishes: Latino communities are not getting proper information on diabetes and nutrition.
33:29🙏🏼 How intuitiveness and spirituality helped Yexenia survive Hurricane Sandy.
37:22🕯️ Being shamed to ask for more from Universe: cultural issues in finding your self-worth.
41:34📦 Yexenia’s RONdering: Show up as yourself everywhere you go: don’t adjust yourself for others.
45:30🤩 Social justice in roots of NYU students now: looking beyond yourself and advocating for people who don’t look like you.
48:20🍜 Being an entrepreneur: private cooking classes for organizations.
51:46Links