Andrea is a citizen of the world who loves to tell stories about the human condition.
From Bogotá, Colombia, she attended United World College, an international boarding high school, in Norway.
At Duke, Andrea majored in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Visual Arts and a certificate in Policy Journalism and Media Studies. She wrote political pieces for several online newspapers and blogs and contributed a column for The Chronicle on race and immigration issues. She spent a semester at Duke in New York and summers in Ghana, Togo, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
Interning with Students of the World, whose mission is to tell stories that change our world for the better, she continued her work on the role of photography in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an honors thesis.
Through the Center for Documentary Studies, Andrea was selected as a Lewis Hine Documentary Fellow and worked in Boston after Duke. Her project From the World to Lynn: Stories of Immigration was featured by The New Yorker, NPR's The State of Things (WUNC) and Under the Radar (WGBH).
She returned to North Carolina, pursuing a Master’s degree in Media and Journalism at UNC Chapel Hill.
Andrea is currently based in Miami, working as a video journalist for Univision Noticias. In her day-to-day work, she produces visual content, both individually and as part of large teams, and is involved in all aspects of visual production - from the research stages to the most intricate details of editing and post-production.
Profoundly interested in stories that deal with questions of migration and human mobility, Andrea’s team won a Hillman Prize for Web Journalism and was nominated for a National News and Documentary Emmy for their story, From migrants to refugees: the plight of Central Americans.
Her mentors have shifted over the years. “I’ve been very fortunate to have multiple mentors at different times of my life. Some of my stronger mentors remain staff or professors I met at Duke. I still remain in touch with most of them: Jenn Dewar, who initially interviewed me in high school when I was applying to college; Professor Rebecca Stein, my anthropology professor and thesis advisor; and Colleen Scott, the director of the Baldwin program, are some of the most important. They were all very important as I was making decisions in my early twenties. In the last couple of years, as I entered my thirties, I’ve found that some of my best mentors have been my peers: women journalists who are going through similar experiences both personally and professionally. Not feeling alone going through this stage of my life and sharing life experiences with peers has been very important to me.”
She is committed to maintaining her personal priorities. “Last February, I was working in the field filming for a project. I was supposed to fly back home on the 9th to meet up with friends who were coming to stay with me and my husband and celebrate our birthdays (yes, we have the same birthday!). A few days before the flight, a snowstorm was starting to form and was scheduled to hit the small airport I was supposed to fly out of. As it became clearer and clearer that the storm would be a big one, I decided to cut my trip short and fly home earlier (even though my coworkers stayed behind filming). It was a very stressful trip: I had to book a last-minute flight for the following morning at 6am, drive myself 2 hours to the airport at 3am, with very little sleep, no cellphone signal and while it was snowing. While this seems like a small choice it's an important one because it reflects the conscious decision I've been trying to make lately of reorganizing and acknowledging my priorities. Even though I love my work and I'm in an industry that admires and rewards individuals who overwork, it has become very clear to me that I want to resist this culture and that my friends, family and personal well-being are my priority.”
Andrea encourages first-year women at Duke to be themselves. “I started college at age 20, two years older than most of my peers, and I think that helped me feel very comfortable in my own skin. I had a blast my first year - enjoyed having lots of friends, making the most of classes and cultural events, and feeling like I could simply go to my room and sleep if I needed and wanted to (sleep!!!). Not feeling pressured into doing things made of my experience fun and healthy.”