By: Alexa Figueroa 🇸🇻
Rodrigo Nakandakari, a business management and technology entrepreneurship major at UMD poses in a suit in College Park, MD Sept. 15, 2022. (Courtesy of Rodrigo Nakandakari)
Rodrigo Nakandakari grew up making sure he finished all the food on his plate because el Cucú no le gustan los niños que se portan mal.
He grew up hearing superstitions such as these all throughout his childhood e todos sabemos que si salimos con el pelo mojado, nos vamos a enfermar.
Nakandakari, a junior who describes himself as a “DMV native” is a business management and technology entrepreneurship major at UMD. He is Peruvian and Japanese.
He was born in Peru and migrated to the U.S. when he was 10 years old. He noticed that people in Latin America express community differently in the U.S. and is why he hugs his community so tightly.
Siente que se tiene que poner las pilas para alcanzar el sueño americano. For first-generation college students such as himself, there are higher expectations and even though his parents say he has made it, he is aiming to achieve more.
He feels as though he is on the way to achieving his American dream because this country has given him muchas oportunidades.
“I was glad I was born with unique life experiences of being born in Peru and coming here because I feel like it made me humble and showed me what I work for and why I do the things I do.”
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