Laura Palau: Happiness Inc
September 9, 2010
By Carlos Macías
The act of smiling involves 12 facial muscles working in unison to produce a universal gesture that opens doors in a way that no other human sign can. It can convey love, kindness, or optimism to anyone that crosses your path in a split second. The power of smiling is limitless. In PorColombia, we have someone who knows how to harness the power of a single smile and gracefully multiply it with infusions of Colombian swagger into outbursts of joy. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to meet the CEO of Happiness Inc., Laura Palau.
Laura was born from a couple of Colombian professionals that migrated from Bucaramanga to New Hampshire. Her father is an architect and her mother works as a medical translator and interpreter. She has a younger brother who just turned 18 years old and is now a University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) freshman. They are her best friends and biggest fans. After finishing high school, she studied her undergraduate years at New York University (NYU) where she was a founding member of our NYU chapter; she started working for AOL in NYC as an intern to then after graduation make the big move over to the West Coast and work for MySpace Latino. She later accepted a gig in Los Angeles as Digital Sales Planner for ImpreMedia. But something was missing, and not even the West Hollywood glamour could complete the picture for her. In her own words, “it was time to pick up and go.”
Laura is a river of joy and after chatting with her for a while you begin to doubt the idea that happiness is ephemeral. She breathes, wears, and speaks happiness with such ease that it makes you wish that if this is a contagious condition, you want to get infected without delay. But what makes Laura so happy? As her mother Margarita Tobar says, “[Laura] has a sweet character, she enjoys everything, from the biggest to the tinniest things in life. Life smiles at her because she always smiles back.” Her former boss, publisher of Vista Magazine and Senior Vice President of Digital Sales at ImpreMedia Digital Liz Sarachek thinks, “Laura is an eternal optimist with a warm and bubbly personality which is contagious and refreshing. She always came across very positive with solutions for our clients’ needs both internally and externally.”
Besides her outgoing personality, her affection for Colombia is what makes her glow brighter. When you ask Laura, “What does Colombia mean to you?”, she gets both nervous and spirited, and says (all these while smiling): “My pulse is galloping just thinking about it. Colombia? País bello, tierra querida de mi corazón, con su flora, su fauna, su gente, su música y pasión.” (Colombia? Beautiful country, beloved land of my heart, with its flora, fauna, its people, its music and passion). Despite her sporadic visits to Colombia, Laura’s love for the country of her parents has become her dominant cultural identity. “I love to be part of it, it is an integral part of me,” Laura says.
This is the reason why she was one of the founding members of our current chapter at NYU. “For me, joining PC was a no-brainer,” Laura says. She thanks her tenure as a student member of PC because this time helped her to learn much more about Colombia, make lifetime friends, and put Colombia on the map at NYU. “My advice for all freshmen in any chapter at PC is the following: Take advantage of as many networking events as you can, make PC your prime extracurricular activity, and volunteer for any of the leadership positions available. You will not regret it,” Laura adds.
In her constant search for nirvana, Laura decided to quit her job in L.A in August and book a flight to the land of passion. Vacation? Nope. The time was right for her to go to Colombia, look for a job and finally make one of her dearest dreams come true: To officially live in Colombia for the first time. As a professional Latina, she feels that her connection with her Colombian roots gives her an edge at the work place. “Being Latina has never been challenging for me, I think maybe the opposite, it has helped my career a lot in digital marketing,” Laura says, now as a PC alumni.
Before leaving for Bogotá, she shared 3 tips to help us on our way to happiness:
1. Be your own best friend. You must be comfortable in your skin and be happy with yourself.
2. Keep family close and make them your best friends.
3. Celebrate and delight in the tinniest beauties, in the small things that may look normal but always carry good meaning.
Colombia Celebrates Bicentennial 1810-2010
By Carlos Macías
PorColombia celebrates with pride, passion, and hope Colombia’s 200th Independence anniversary on July 20. As our country’s ambassadors living in a foreign land, that has welcomed us with open arms, Colombians rejoice about our rich heritage and invite people from all cultures to celebrate with us the anniversary of two centuries since we declared our independence and became a republic.
The Colombian government has organized 3 days of festivities, including a great national concert featuring over 200,000 artists performing simultaneously at 1,102 different localities. The goal is to play the nation anthem at unison nationwide at noon on July 20 and then enjoy the artists’ repertoires.
Here in the United States, the Colombian Diaspora also commemorates this democratic milestone with multiple cultural and social events across the country. Our friend in Facebook Colombianos en Estados Unidos has compiled a list of activities to be held in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina and more. Also, they’ve created a photo album in Facebook with flyers, photos, and logos related to the events and the independence celebration.
Download a PDF (in Spanish) provided by the Asociación Colombiana de Profesionales y Estudiantes Colombianos en el Exterior (PEXC) and Colombianos en Estados Unidos. Here it’s the list of events happening from July 18 to August 1 (in English):
IV CSC Recap: 5 Years and still Growing Strong
By Carlos Macias
The IV Colombian Student Conference (CSC) started for many of us a few months before April of 2010. For The George Washington University (GWU) chapter meant countless hours of defining logistics, securing attendance of panelists, and attracting sponsors. For PorColombia’s (PC) national executive board, it represented many teleconferences, designing our first promotional brochure, and the excitement to finally experience the fourth installment of our annual signature event. For our members living in the north as far as Toronto or in the south reaching Florida, it was the anticipation to finally meet in person their fellow PorColombians (some for the first time) and get impregnated with the “from passion to action” bug.
The day before the event, we all started our journey to Washington D.C. Some of us rented “church” vans and traveled in caravan, others drove almost 10 hours non-stop from Canada, many decided to hop on the express bus service serving the I-95 corridor, and a handful just took a plane to the Ronald Reagan Airport. Several photo albums have been posted in Facebook as a testament of these unforgettable road trips. But the real fun was awaiting for all of us in D.C. In the meantime, the conference staff was fine-tuning many last minute details to make the event a total success. And you know what? In all fairness, it was. Read more…
PorColombia @ York Featured in El Heraldo
By Carlos Macías
The outstanding participation of PC @ York in their Multicultural week prompted an excellent review by the ElHeraldo.com from Barranquilla, Colombia. The note chronicles how our fellow PorColombians competed in several events like a DJ showdown, debate, custom parade and more. ElHeraldo.com’s Gustavo Abello highlights that our chapter was one of the newest and smallest clubs in the entire school, given the aproximetely 50,000 students that attend York, but they earned recognition and high marks in most of the events. This is a great example on how passion for our Colombian culture transforms into productive actions. As Abello says “the finest Colombian export is not coffee, it is the Colombian soul.” Read the article by clicking here (en español)
You can learn more about PorColombia @ UF on their blog. Also follow them on Facebook.
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