Where you grew up and your background can often have surprising effects on our lives and careers. We’ve asked folks from the community to tell us about how their background has affected them.

Meek Coley | Artist

I am originally from New York. I was born in Brooklyn, but lived in the Bronx and New Rochelle for awhile after that. I moved around quite a bit when I was younger. After NY, I moved to Maryland, then to Florida, then to Connecticut, and then finally back to Florida. Read more>>

Chelsi Molina | Hollywood Run Club Leader

My name is Chelsi Molina, and I’m a third culture kid – meaning my parents are of different cultures and I grew up in a third culture different of my parents. For example, my mom is American of Eastern European descent and my dad is from Spain, born and raised, and I grew up in Germany. When I moved to Florida for college in 20023, when people asked where I was from and I answered, “Germany,” the response was nearly always, “Wow! You speak such great English!” Read more>>

Quincy Gainous | Artist & Entertainer

I am from Miami, Florida, a teen with goals and not dreams, which I plan to accomplish. The reason for this is because my family raised me to work hard for what you want, and to not give up on the one thing you truly desire, even if it might be a long process. One thing I love doing is Entertaining people, spreading positivity really helps me feel positive, it’s almost like a win-win. As a kid, I would “perform” at family parties for the laughs and smiles of others. Till this day, I still remember that one time I sang and danced to an Usher song when I was around 8 years old. In that very moment, I got asked the one question not everyone is able to answer, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. Till this day I still can’t give you an answer for that, because I never wanted to be just one thing, I wanted to be everything. I’ve always had such a broad imagination, from wanting to be a teacher, to wanting to be an FBI Agent, the people in my life really influenced me to want to be so many things. But as I grew older and experienced many things, I think I finally know how I want to settle down. I still won’t choose just one career, but I do know what industry I want to be in. The Entertainment Industry, it’s calling my name! It makes sense, I do love photography, not just taking the pictures but also being Infront of the camera (Modeling), I do enjoy hitting the beats to different songs and showing artistic moves with my body (Dancing), Mixing Music and bringing them to life is also another I enjoy (DJ), and the list goes on and on. For years I’ve been trying to discover myself not knowing that these Hobbies that I very much enjoy doing can be turned into a long-lasting career. And my experiences in my past really helped shape who I am today and create the mindset I now have. Read more>>