Florecita Carías Mejia’s Story

Florecita is 10 years into a successful business career, and never takes anything for granted. She arrived to Massachusetts as a 6 year old from Guatemala and throughout her life, has pressed herself not to underestimate what she is capable of. 

Florecita first considered college in her sophomore year of high school when the Boston HERC came to her youth group to talk to the kids about it. “There wasn’t anyone in my family who knew about college, it was a subject that never came up before that,” she says. Florecita shared her plan with her school guidance counselor and he laughed at her, asking her what business she had to be thinking about college. This shook Florecita for a moment, but being the poised young leader she was, she pressed on. She surrounded herself with positivity at Boston HERC and her church and dove into the SAT classes HERC offered. She explains, “Sam [the Executive Director] told me I could be anything I wanted to be, and I believed him.”

Through Boston HERC, Florecita was introduced to the scholarship program where she earned a full ride to Gordon College. She knew she wanted to succeed in business to be able to support her family and found a businesswoman mentor to help show her the ropes. While still in college, she interned at BNY Mellon and has continued moving up the ranks there ever since. 

Today, Florecita is happily married with three beautiful children who she challenges to do all they can through hard work and faith and gives back in every way she can, including to the Boston HERC.  She encourages today’s Passport students to “Never limit yourself. Go for your dreams. The worst that can happen is you don’t do well, but you will just get yourself back up and try again.”