At the end of the day, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. And we got to remember that. So my career story was not linear. It's actually was some 20 on a narrow. I grew up in a small village in the northern part of Portugal. My parents were small business owners and most people in the village lived off the land. My parents always told me that I would go to university and either become a lawyer or a doctor. And if I could not do either, I would be a banker. I immigrated to America with my mother at the age of 16 and a half. And then I went to university as a pre-med major. I quickly realized that medicine wasn't going to be for me. Luckily, my roommate was a business major and she encouraged me to take the GMAT. And to my surprise, I did very, very well. I went to business school. I graduated and I started my career at IBM. So that's how I ended up in marketing. IBM was my first love. It still is. But Sapien is my true love. For me, and I actually think for everybody that is an executive in a C-level, I think there's a bit of luck and timing. Being in a company and in a culture that really enables you to be your true self. And I don't say this just to say it lightly, but I really believe that because that's how you really thrive. And that's how you really grow.
It was about nine years ago, my young son, International Women's Day, I was going to speak in a panel. And the night before I was telling him about it. And he said to me, Mom, what is International Women's Day? And I told him it's a day that we celebrate women. And then he paused for a second and he responded and said, Mom, I feel very sorry for women. First, I was a bit puzzled. And I asked him, why did you feel sorry? And he said, because it means that every other day is men's day. So gender equity means that we don't have to celebrate it. We just have to embrace it. One day we don't have to have International Women's Day. International Women's Day will be every day.
I believe that we all have to be very intentional in the decisions we're making about hiring, promotion, opportunities. And I do believe for us and for any other company has to represent society today. I run an internship program and my internship program is really focused on first generation college students and students that come from diverse backgrounds. People like me, when I immigrated, I didn't have those connections. I recruit those individuals that go through my internship to coach them and to guide them. So I believe that we had to do more of that.