Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Alejandra Giraldo Arredondo.
Hi Maria Alejandra, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Pretty much started 11 years ago in London, UK. I am from Colombia, I went to the UK to study and improve my English in 2008. In 2010 I opened my first company Maga Connection, an education agency that provides advice to international students to go primarily to Europe, Australia and Canada and complete their high-end education. We represent more than 600 Colleges and Universities around the world, we have freelances in Latina America and UK. Few years later, we moved to San Antonio, Texas. I kept working from there in my company and also obtained my license in real estate. I focus my work on helping investors to find properties and manage the business with some occasions help primary homeowners too. In 2019, I opened an online shop called Arthisan, we offer hand made and craft products from local producers in Latin America, this business evolved in 2020 to what today is a big community “Emprende Latina”, entrepreneurial women who are looking for a platform and support to scale their businesses and offer their products. We built monthly round tables, bring support and guidance to these women as well to run a monthly open public markets. We know have more than 1,400 people as part of the community. Our last initiative is a preschool ‘Schola International’, open formally this year. A multilingual preschool, incorporating Spanish, English and French in all our curriculum, this developed as need of parents who look for places where their kids can develop and continue their education in a small groups and more personalized education.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
All entrepreneurship has ups and downs. Some of our struggles have been the need to act quickly before the external changes that affect each one of the businesses. For Maga Connection, the immigration changes for students. In real estate, the high supply and demand of the market. For Arthisan, the constant presence in social networks and finally the Schola International the way to reach more people and to make the Enrollments of students.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I started Schola International as a learning pod to cope with the education demands of children in her community during pandemic. But, soon the demand for my learning pod kept growing and to an extent that I found it necessary to hire more staff. My efforts increased and soon, I discovered myself becoming the founder and Director of a successful learning community called Schola International of Austin, one of the most brilliant concepts in early age learning to reach Austin. One thing I am passionate about besides education is helping the Latin community. I am the founder of Emprende Latina, a community engaged to help Latin women in their business to continue growing to a next step. That is, to prevent them becoming stagnant – once they start their business. We help them organizing various panels with speakers each month and offer counseling, support, and motivation to continue with their enterprises. In other words, we motivate them to Insist, persist, and never give up! We also started an event called Latin American market on the first Sunday of each month on Round Rock, Texas.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I love reading and writing poems and life stories.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@scholainternational.com
- Website: https://scholainternational.com/, https://magaconnection.com/, https://maria-giraldo.com/, https://emprendelatina-texas.com/, https://latinamericamarket.com/
- Instagram: @schola_international
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scholainternational
- Youtube: https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UC2fJLUDF6-MHdDfQk4crvyQ
