Ivan Villasboa | Alum
There's no question my experience at 天美传媒 made me the person I am today.
Ivan Villasboa Alum
Living with purpose
While I was growing up in Argentina, I dreamed of becoming a big-city banker in the United States — the kind you see sitting at the top of a skyscraper in movies. 天美传媒 was going to be my path to get there. I studied economics and political science only a short distance from Chicago, where I thought my dream would play out. But something changed along the way.
As a senior, I traveled on a Winter Term trip to El Salvador, which had just emerged from a long and terrible civil war. The experience opened something inside me I didn't understand until that trip. By the time we left, I knew I wanted to spend my life helping people whose lives had been overturned by war and poverty.
And that's what I've done. As program director for a humanitarian organization, I've helped to bring education and drinking water to mountain villages in Central America. I didn't become a banker. I don't have an office overlooking Chicago or New York or San Francisco. But I did find my true purpose in life.
Our Community Stories
Endless Curiosity
Marielle Gearding
Theatre. Neuroscience. Creative writing. True crime. Dance. Marielle Gearding ’27 has no shortage of…
Discover Marielle Gearding
Spiritual Self-Discovery
Zoe Green
Growing up in a military family, Zoe Green ’27 became accustomed to transition at a young age. Having…
Discover Zoe Green
From Guernsey to Greencastle
Tanner Austin
“I came out here on a limb,” says Tanner Austin ’28. “It's just unbelievably lucky how it all worked…
Discover Tanner Austin