NSU Horizons Fall 2017

50 NSU HORIZONS Student Hones Leadership, Business Skills BY KATHLEEN KERNICKY Motivated to Learn Gabriela Alfaro Alvarado was 13 when she left home in Costa Rica to attend IMG Academy, a boarding school in Bradenton, Florida. She spent four years of high school studying and playing soccer while her family was 1,200 miles away. “The first two years were very tough,” said Alfaro, a 2017 alumna of NSU’s H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, who graduated with majors in business administration and finance. “Many times I wanted to quit and go back home. I spent my quinceanera (15th birthday) by myself. My parents were always telling me, ‘No, Gaby, nothing comes easy in life. You need to work for things that you want.’ So the motivation came from there.” At NSU, the motivation she learned at a young age pushed her to become active—as a leader on the soccer field, in the classroom, and in campus organizations. The alumna is again a student, enrolled in the Huizenga College’s M.B.A. program. She will continue to play soccer, and serve as president of Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity and as a member of the President’s 64, a group of 64 students selected as ambassadors and liaisons to George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., NSU president and CEO. I Avid soccer player Gabriela Alfaro Alvarado plans to use her M.B.A. to open an academic and sports academy in Costa Rica where students can play soccer at a competitive level. STUDENT PROFILE