Meet Aamir Kutianawala, a summer program intern at EGBI. Aamir has been working with EGBI for the summer. He is a rising junior at Westwood High School and would like to go more into business/marketing as he progresses with his education. Outside of school and EGBI, Aamir is part of his school’s debate team, robotics team, DECA team, and various others as well. He loves playing and watching sports in his free time, and has also been pursuing guitar on the side!
Aamir shares his experience as a volunteer with EGBI and how you can get involved too.
To get started, would you mind telling us a fun fact about yourself?
I have been learning to play the guitar for 3 years.
How have you been involved with EGBI?
I have been working on a variety of tasks, but mainly help clients/business owners with finances and marketing. I also provide broad support by making lectures for entire groups of clients, along with helping to complete any general tasks.
Why do you think it is important to volunteer at EGBI?
I think it’s important to work with EGBI to support disadvantaged business owners, and help bridge the gap with underrepresented groups in business.
What has your favorite experience with EGBI been so far?
My favorite experience has been taking and editing pictures for a client’s Etsy shop.
“EGBI helps you make a difference in the community.”– Aamir Kutianawala
In 2021, EGBI volunteers put in more than 130 hours to help EGBI support and serve over 400 small businesses. Volunteers like Ken make this possible and continue to help EGBI pursue their mission of training, coaching, and supporting aspiring and existing business owners who face barriers to growing a successful business.
Want to get involved too? Contact us to find out how you can volunteer or donate.
Hi! My name is Shamitha and I have been with EGBI for a month now and it has been an enriching experience. I am an incoming senior at Westwood High School, and as my education progresses, I hope to pursue a degree in finance or management. Outside of EGBI, I am in my school’s orchestra, Academy Ambassador program, GenShe, and several other clubs and honor societies.
Shamitha shares her experience as an intern with EGBI and how you can get involved too.
To get started, would you mind telling us a fun fact about yourself?
A fun fact about me is that I grew up mainly in London, England, and California.
How have you been involved with EGBI?
I mainly do research and analysis for clients’ businesses to see where they can improve financially. I’ve also recently worked on importing and exporting goods, bookkeeping, and more.
Why do you think it is important to volunteer at EGBI?
EGBI allows you to connect with people from all kinds of different backgrounds and changes your perspective on business and the world around you.
What has your favorite experience with EGBI been so far?
My favorite experience has been attending the 90 Days business workshop. I’ve been able to connect with a lot of different people and learn about their businesses and inspirations. I’ve also had the opportunity to meet with them one-on-one to help expand their businesses.
“EGBI provides you the opportunity to learn new skills, communicate, and network.” – Shamitha Ramanan
In 2021, EGBI volunteers put in more than 130 hours to help EGBI support and serve over 400 small businesses. Volunteers like Ken make this possible and continue to help EGBI pursue their mission of training, coaching, and supporting aspiring and existing business owners who face barriers to growing a successful business.
Want to get involved too? Contact us to find out how you can volunteer or donate.
Rosemary is a native Austinite, born and raised in East Austin. She is the giving coordinator at Tito’s Handmade Vodka, and her role goes well with her passion and desire to make the world a better place. She works in the philanthropy department and handles the monetary donation process for all national giving and assists nonprofits with their support they provide in the community. Rosemary completed the Hispanic Austin Leader program in 2009 and Leadership Austin in 2020. She is a former board member of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and GAHCC Foundation board of directors and has held various leadership roles in the Hispanic Austin Leadership program. In 2015, she received the GAHCC Chairs Award; in 2016, she received the TAMACC Women of Distinction award; in 2019 she received the HAL Alumni of the Year award; the HABLA Outstanding Community Leader Award in 2020 and Con Mi Madre Mariposa Award in 2022. She is a past advisory board member of the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center Advisory Board, appointed by Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza and a past committee member of Somos Austin. In her spare time, she enjoys day trips and spending time with her family, especially her young grandson.
Rosemary Banda shares her experience as an EGBI supporter.
To get started, do you mind telling us a fun fact about yourself? Native Austinite and have lived in Austin all my life. I love to coordinate gatherings where women can come together and mingle and socialize and leave behind their day to day tasks for just a little while. It’s important to build each other up and just share sometime together.
How did you first get involved with EGBI? I first heard about EGBI in 2008 when they presented at the Hispanic Austin Leadership class. My HAL classmate Barbra Boeta, went on to become Executive Director and it was a great opportunity to learn more about EGBI and become a wholehearted supporter.
Why is it important to support organizations such as EGBI? EGBI is important to small companies and entrepreneurs to get the training and coaching to start up their business and keep thriving. Offering their services in Spanish is a must for the Hispanic community.
How has your involvement with EGBI helped you grow professionally and personally? As giving coordinator, it’s important to me to support organizations that provide a great service to the committee. Seeing the members of EGBI and how they are thriving, reassures me of my commitment to EGBI.
In 2021, EGBI supporters help EGBI pursue their mission of training, coaching, and supporting aspiring and existing business owners who face barriers to growing a successful business.
Want to get involved too? Contact us to find out how you can volunteer or donate.
Luz Gonzalez is a Premier Online Business Strategy Expert, International Speaker, CEO and Co- Founder of IndustryIkon.com, and works with service-based small business owners and experts (coaches/ consultants/authors/speakers) to convert their online presence to a client attraction machine. Luz has a B.A. and J.D. from U.C. Berkeley, over a decade of experience with online branding strategy having presented around the US on the topic, was an International Human Rights Lawyer, has spoken at well-established institutions such as McKinsey & Company, UC Berkeley, Stanford, etc., led online branding strategy for over 4 years with companies in Silicon Valley. Luz has a unique take on high ticket branding & marketing incorporating behavioral economics, neuroscience, and evidence-based strategies.
Luz Gonzalez shares her experience as a volunteer of EGBI.
To get started, do you mind telling us a fun fact about yourself? I used to be an international human rights lawyer, but found that digital marketing work is much more impactful than a lot of the work I did in the legal space.
How did you first get involved with EGBI?
I first heard about EGBI from someone on the board who said I should reach out. He mentioned how EBGI supported Latino entrepreneurial communities, and as a Latina who sees how often my community does not have access to the digital marketing resources many other business owners have, I knew I wanted to be part of their mission.
Why do you feel that it’s important to give your time volunteering with EGBI?
There are a number of organizations that support businesses at the $1M level, but I find that the work supporting entrepreneurs who have yet to reach the first million-dollar and revenue is some of the most impactful work. I find that the work that EGBI does fills really important gaps, and I would love EGBI to be able to support Latino Entrepreneurs around the country since I haven’t seen a program that is so comprehensive, accessible and affordable, that really changes lives. I am so proud to volunteer with EGBI!
What has been the most beneficial part of volunteering for you? How has your involvement with EGBI helped you grow professionally and personally?
Volunteering with EGBI has been absolutely wonderful. Every time that I get to work on digital marketing with the entrepreneurs in the room it’s a reminder of how important this work is and how it really changes lives. It’s been an incredible opportunity to get to know a staff and to get to know the people that are touched every day by the powerful work that EGBI does. Being able to support the EBGI students relights a fire in my belly each time, and reminds me how powerful digital marketing can be in changing lives for people who previously didn’t have access to this knowledge.
In 2021, EGBI volunteers put in more than 130 hours to help EGBI support and serve over 400 small businesses. Volunteers like Luz make this possible and continue to help EGBI pursue their mission of training, coaching, and supporting aspiring and existing business owners who face barriers to growing a successful business.
Want to get involved too? Contact us to find out how you can volunteer or donate.
Fulfilling a dream while providing livable wages is the driving force behind Christina Paz, owner of Siller Preferred Services. Growing up in South Texas with her six siblings, Paz watched her mom struggle to meet her monthly obligations as a migrant worker, often relying on social services and government assistance. Wanting to break the cycle of poverty, Paz dreamed of a future of stability. While living in Minnesota, she worked for an employment agency. Working her way up from receptionist to regional manager, she realized how she could help individuals, like her mother, provide for their families with honest work. Moving back to Texas prompted Paz to open her employment agency in 2014. Today, Siller provides over 200 individuals throughout Austin with livable wages. A mom of three, Paz stresses the importance of hard work and giving back to your community. She is an active member of her church and enjoys Pilates.
Christina Paz shares her experience as a client and supporter of EGBI.
To get started, would you mind telling us a fun fact about yourself? Within the EGBI community, I am known as the person who kicked Al Lopez, the previous Executive Director of EGBI, out of his office.
Why do you support EGBI? I met Al Lopez and Barbra Boeta in 2014 when I had just opened my business. My attorney Ana is the one who introduced me, and that is where everything started.
EGBI cultivates a culture where entrepreneurs are built up with attention to detail. The services that I received are not easy to find, and when something is very rare you take care of it and protect it. For all of these reasons, I chose to support, as a way to give back and contribute to others.
Why is it important to support EGBI? As an individual who took courses through EGBI, I created a relationship with the staff that was incredibly unique. The one-on-one guidance given to me by mentors helped me understand topics I did not have experience with as a business owner. Nobody made me feel unintelligent just because I didn’t know something, everyone was very understanding through the process.
Why did you decide to support EGBI for Celebrating Success? Similar to above, I chose to support this organization because of the amazing experience that I have with it. I have witnessed the passion that is ingrained into what EGBI offers. There is still a relationship where people will check-up on me, there are areas that I still don’t have knowledge in and they do. I continue supporting because of the support that I was given as an entrepreneur.
How has EGBI helped you and your business? I think that one of the most important things I learned at EGBI were the organizational parts of opening a business. EGBI teaches you everything you need to know from business partner etiquette, agreements, and contracts. Above all else, EGBI gave me the support I needed during hard times which I don’t think I would’ve gotten anywhere else.
In 2021, EGBI supporters like Christina help EGBI pursue their mission of training, coaching, and supporting aspiring and existing business owners who face barriers to growing a successful business.
Want to get involved too? Contact us to find out how you can volunteer or donate.
I am, Margrita Foss, an expert in the management and control of personal emotions and the building and maintaining of positive self-esteem. I am born Colombian, living in Austin, Texas, a happy wife and mother of two incredible children, Jaime and Daniela. I have now dedicated my life to guiding Hispanic women who may have already achieved success, started a family, and feel that they “have it all”, but inside, their thoughts do not allow them to be happy, feeling unable to overcome an unpleasant past. I help Latinas who have done so much for others that they have forgotten themselves; reaching a point in their lives where they say: “Now it’s my turn!”. Step by step, I help them become mentally strong women in control of their emotions; obtaining a more productive, fulfilling and happy life.
From the point in my earlier life when I personally suffered emotional abuse, I have worked diligently to rise above the pain and sadness. Learning English provided me with the ability to learn from many of the experts in the areas of mental self-improvement, emotional healing, and spiritual development. I studied, listened to podcasts, attended seminars and workshops, obtained certifications and accreditations and custom built a profession that takes all that I have learned and adapted and tailored it for the Hispanic women community. Recently I have created The Empowered Latina Academy (ELA), an online program that teaches that living without emotional burden can make you a happier and inspired woman, living a more productive and abundant life.
Margarita Foss shares her experience as an EGBI client.
Do you mind telling us a fun fact about yourself? Since even before becoming a Dentist more than 25 years ago in Colombia, I have hated to give presentations. I hated to speak in public. I disliked getting in front of my classmates. I would get extremely nervous and it would make me sick to my stomach. But somehow I always seemed to do a pretty good job of it. In fact, I was invited several times to teach oral health on local radio stations in my home city and also in small rural villages in Colombia. As time went by, I moved to the States 17 years ago, I went to Dental Hygienist School and again I found myself giving presentations to my classmates in the school. After graduating, every single job I have had in Dental Offices has required me to inform and educate people, individually and in groups on oral health and hygiene. I present to my patients, in schools, nursing homes and more. The last several years in my dental career I ended up teaching Oral Hygiene in the orientation for new employees for an institution with patients with special needs. But still, public speaking and now in English, was something that I didn’t enjoy at all. However, one day I noticed that people were staying after classes to ask questions, and THAT was the moment I realized that teaching was something that I’m pretty good at, and I started falling in love with public speaking.
How did you first get involved with EGBI? A couple years ago I was searching for an organization that could help me learn how to start my new business, Life Coaching for Latinas. I found EGBI and had the opportunity to take one of the workshops offered at that time. Later, as a coordinator of Miercoles Professional Amhiga Hispana (Nonprofit Organization), I had the opportunity to connect with Monica Peña and she told me more about the organization. I feel that we, as women-owned small businesses, are so blessed to have the opportunity to work with EGBI and learn the skills that are necessary to succeed.
Why is it important to support organizations such as EGBI? As a Latina entrepreneur I know first hand the struggles involved in setting up a business and honestly, unless you have the guidance of experts like the ones I found at EGBI, it can take you years to succeed. So, why try to build something from scratch in an area where you have no clue, no experience, and waste the time, money and effort when you can count on expert assistance like EGBI. As the African proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Saying this, the support of organizations like EGBI is so important for business owners who are struggling to build a successful business. Together we will go far together!
How has your involvement with EGBI helped you grow professionally and personally? Day one, EGBI started helping me to become more organized, to use my time more productively, and most importantly to build my own power of staying focused on the important parts of building the business. They provided me with the organizational “tools” indispensable for any business. Working with EGBI I have had the opportunity to meet incredible people that bring to my life the experience and knowledge of building a small business, something I value immensely.
There is no doubt that my business is moving to the next level much faster than if I wouldn’t have had the support of EGBI.
In 2021, EGBI volunteers put in more than 130 hours to help EGBI support and serve over 400 small businesses. Volunteers help EGBI pursue their mission of training, coaching, and supporting aspiring and existing business owners who face barriers to growing a successful business.
Want to get involved too? Contact us to find out how you can volunteer or donate.
