Bienvenidos a México!
This week, we venture to Mexico through the pages of a photographer, YouTube vlogger, business development expert and a Citizen Ambassador to the United Nations.
Sonia Alicia is a YouTube vlogger from La Paz, México. Sonia studies marketing and advertising and her YouTube channel focuses on fashion, lifestyle, beauty, work and managing personal finance.
日本へようこそ.
This week, we celebrate our growing community based in Japan. Japan is the world’s 10th largest country with a population of 126 million people. Similarly, Japan is one of the highest represented countries at about.me.
Join us in traveling to Japan through the pages of Naoko, Jérôme, Akari and Akira.
Akari Yanagawa works in the Animation Industry, specifically on spreading Japanese ANIME around the world. Akari studied at Keio University in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
If you’ve done some browsing of about.me you’ve probably run across a stunning photo, vivid green with a man walking along an almost invisible road through the forest. With such a compelling photo, maybe you clicked on the page to discover more about the man behind the photograph, Marques Anderson.
A former NFL safety, Marques played football professionally in the United States for four seasons with the Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers. Following his time in the NFL he traveled, earned a master’s degree, coached football in Norway and founded the World Education Foundation. In his role as director of the foundation he’s traveled to over 50 countries, documenting his travels through photography.
This month, as we end our series of interviews of athletes on about.me and head into our month on sustainability and the environment (in honor of Earth Day on April 22nd), it seems apt to be sharing the story of Marques’s incredible journey through sports and how it is inspiring him to change the world.
Living abroad, especially in a country where you don’t natively speak the language, is never easy. It’s even more of a challenge if you start a company there. And that’s is exactly what Elizabeth J. Taylor did.
An avid fan of Rick Steve’s Europe (she would fight to watch it on Saturday mornings at the age of eight) Elizabeth took up French as part of her college studies. Required to go abroad for her major, Elizabeth decided to use her last semester at Vanderbilt University to intern and take classes in France. That small taste of living and working abroad wasn’t enough though, she wanted to live in France full time and really immerse herself in the culture.
Bouncing from a production office to a casting room to a recording booth to an acting class, all in one day, Kristy Best‘s days can most accurately described as hectic. But she wouldn’t have it any other way. As an actress, director and teacher, this crazy sort of lifestyle is not new to this Australian.
It started when she was a child. Always dancing around the house, her mother decided to enroll her in dance classes. Shy while offstage, Kristy soon found herself enrolled in drama classes as well. The combination paved the way to performances in musicals and as part of a talent show group at events, festivals and entertainment venues. Then there were TV commercials for Pringles and the shy girl began to come out of her shell and fall in love with performing.
As we continue our month of entertainment and film (starting last week with film composer René G. Boscio) we’re excited to go behind the scenes with director, Quark Henares.
Born and raised in the Philippines, Quark is not just a film and video director but also a musician, film studies professor, award-winning writer, former band director, part-time actor and University of Southern California MBA. Check out our interview with him, below.
First came the makeup artists and hair stylists, then the sparkly costumes, and finally, the cue to step onto the stage. Standing in front of thousands of people, her nerves a mess, Ilaria Mangiardi did what she loves most, she sang. Her nervousness melted away and by the time the song was over, she could have stayed on the Eurovision stage for hours.
Though she wasn’t the main performer at the Swiss finals of the Eurovision song contest (she sang backup vocals for Scilla) the opportunity was still one of the highlights of Ilaria’s life as a singer and music lover and she remembers the experience fondly. “I don’t care if it’s 10 or 10,000 people, I just sing and I feel good,” she says.
Some people love music but Lissa Monet lives it.
It seems the Lissa has always been surrounded by music, even as a child. She recalls growing up with her parents from Trinidad & Tobago and Granada and there always being a huge Soca and Reggae presence in her home. Then, in elementary school her parents would set an alarm for her that turned on an 80’s radio station to wake her up. In high school she went to the Cardinal Academy for the Arts and studied Music. There she was introduced to classical and choral music as well as music theory and musical composition.
But her musical education didn’t stop in the classroom, she would listen to music in the shower, while studying for exams, before going to bed and on long subway rides. And so she began comparing music styles from the classical era to current music, noting the similarities and differences.
“The instrument is somewhat an extension of the body, in which it speaks the soul of the player as interpreter.” – CheHo Lam
At the age of six, when his father first brought home a 1/8 size violin, CheHo Lam was ecstatic. “He said that this instrument was not a toy, that it would be my serious responsibility to take good care of it; that it was my ‘sabre‘ to always keep by my side.”
Looking at Fabio Himmelstoss’s photo you may think that you’ve fallen through the looking glass but rest assured, it’s just this young designer’s creativity and personality shining through.
In fact, it’s what prompted us to click on his page and invite him for an interview, that and his fascinating story.
