[Joe]

Me? a current student from City Tech. People might look at me and wonder, who is that flawless guy?, Well for those who are wondering this is Johandry Veras. I was born in the Dominican Republic (DR) and since my 1st grade I have been recognized and meritorious every year until I got to 8th grade. After 8th grade my mother sent me to a polytechnic institute where I started to find out who I wanted to be or better yet where I truly belong. After having a year in the polytechnic I desired to leave the country and come to New York City for my dreams. I left part of my family, including one of the most important person in my life, my mother, but that was an obstacle that I had to confront and made me wiser.
Moving to another country and having to learn academically another language did not stop my dream and my passion to be professional. I learned to write, read and speak in less than a year. Being recognized every month in high school as a dedicated student, keeping a GPA average within 3.5-4.0 and also 100% perfect attendance. And of course, I was classified to be in the honor society until I graduated. One of my favorite days in High School was the senior night because I had a certificate in science and two medals one for Honor society and another for perfect attendance.
I also had a passion to some sports. I almost became black belt in Taekwondo, getting certificates, winning every single fight in 1st place, getting gold medal and trophies made me feel accomplished. I did not continue because I did not have time after I started working and being in school but it doesn’t mean that I will not go back to practice it. I also love running, I got two medals one in 3rd place and another in 1st place in regard to a competition in high school.
Well my academy goal is to maintain a GPA over 3.5 in college. I am also willing to go up to my PhD. I want to have my Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality Management, a Master in Business Administration and a PhD in Marketing. I might sound crazy for others but I love school, I like to learn, and be wisdom. I also want to learn French and Italian because I like these languages and I think the more languages you know the easier for you to get a job worldwide.
I started working in retail a year and a half after I moved to NYC. I started working for Aeropostale where I realized why I wanted to be in college. My manager used to tell me that I was doing great with customer service and that I have the attitude to manage and handle situations. Before a year working there, I got promoted to be the EL (experience leader). Furthermore, at 19 years old, the store manager told me to think about being a manager. OMG! but that moment of excitement only last literally two seconds because she told me that in order to be promoted to a manager position I had to be available any day and any time of the week which in other words, she means to leave school and my dreams. Of course I said I can not accept the offer, and to cut the story short, I ended leaving. Later I worked for DSW and currently I am working for Swatch. Even though I haven’t work in hotels, I have gained a lot of customer and management experience. It might sound crazy, but I had an offer to work at a hotel but I had to refuse it because they needed me to work overnight. The point is that I will do anything in life but not leave school until I am prepared enough to be successful in life.
I have a lot of goal and options to achieve in term of my career. I want to become a general manager for highly recognized branch of hotels, I would like to work in a cruise, I want and hope to have a restaurant or a hotel in DR. And of course I want to help to find those little gaps that are making hotels not become successful in the industry.
As everybody I have some strengths. People say that I have a great personality, friendly and disciplined. I also have the strength to manage a team and it is something that I enjoy doing. I am bilingual, ambitious, dedicated, creative, caring, confident, intelligent, focused and observant. I like to be wisdom, patient, and competitive.
Competition is the key to success and compete is what I like to do. As soon as I get out into the hotel industry, I want to help the hotel branch that I will be working with to be on top and beyond any other. I want to provide a great experience to my guests and engagement into all that the hotel has to offer, because that is what I enjoy doing. My interest is to help business grow and gain experience so that it can lead me into opening my own business. I strongly believe that if you love what you do, you can become successful.