Former Eagles Cheerleader Shows Temple Alumni Can Do It All

You were also a prolific cheerleader, including a stint with the Philadelphia Eagles. When and how did that all come about?

So, my senior year at Temple was when I auditioned for the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders. I started dancing at the age of 2 in my hometown and did a lot of different dance styles. I was a competitive dancer for a while, but when I went into high school, I stopped dancing. I grew up with a single mom who had two kids, and dancing is quite expensive. So, I kind of let it go and just focused on my studies. When I got to Temple, it was something on my mind, seeing the dance team and thinking it was cool. I felt like I missed out on a couple of years, so I didn’t have a leg up on auditioning when it came to the Temple Diamond Gems. I saw an ad on Twitter, I think during the 2016–17 season to audition for the Eagles, and I missed the audition and workshop deadline. When it came time for the 2017–18 season audition process, I knew when to look for open call auditions and committed to it.

Was it hard to balance both that and your senior year academic goals?

At first it was, because I was also doing an internship at CHOP at that time too. So being a full-time student, part-time intern, and then part-time professional dancer was a lot on my schedule. But I’m a very productive person; I always seek opportunities to keep myself busy and be a part of my community. I’ve been living here in Philadelphia since 2014 and always wanted to have a larger impact on the community that I live in.

You ended up being an Eagles cheerleader for 6 years; what was that experience like?

It was a whirlwind, especially my first year. You’re relatively new to the organization, and it’s the same as being like a new employee in a corporate setting. And of course, we ended up winning the Super Bowl that first year too. (Laughs) It was a little hard to balance my priorities as a student because I was graduating and that was something that my family really looked forward to as a first-generation student here. But then as the years with the Eagles went on, it progressed into, you know, this is a dream that I never thought I would have. Some of my teammates didn’t stay on past that season, but for me, being in my early 20s and just finishing college, I didn’t really know yet what I was going to do, but one thing that always persisted was my passion for dancing. I think that’s part of the reason why I stuck with it for so long.

It seems like things came full circle; you mentioned kind of losing out on a couple years dancing-wise during high school, but this situation then presented itself as the perfect opportunity to make up for some of that lost time. 

It felt like I was overcorrecting in a way because I had missed out on dancing in high school and given that, I wanted to spend a lot of my time with the Eagles because of how passionate I was. It was my first love; it was the first activity that I felt very motivated about. So, it was great to do that for six years, and of course the added bonuses that came with it, like traveling with the team when we could.  

So, career-wise, you’ve held a few different positions since graduation, and leading up to your current position at American Water. Can you walk us through those?

So postgrad, I was very thankful for the first organization I worked with, which was Vetri Community Partnership. My role with them was to go out to local schools and do cooking demonstrations, health and nutrition education. It was something that I really enjoyed too, because nutrition and physical exercise are something that I do daily, not just with my platform as being a cheerleader. It’s something that I hold a high standard for myself. So, that was a great chance to work in West and North Philly and see the community I was affecting. After that, I had gotten an opportunity with Jefferson to work in acute care surgery clinical trials, where I helped coordinate a couple clinical trials for a few years.

Then the pandemic hit.

Then the pandemic hit, and I was looking for something that was more flexible with the rest of my schedule. I ended up picking up a contracting job with American Water, my current employer, doing contact tracing all throughout the pandemic. That really opened my eyes to the water industry, and I think now, where I am with my current position as a health and safety coordinator, I’m very happy with where I am because all those different opportunities after graduation led me to where I am today. Because of my background in public health, it really hits home with me that such an important aspect of our everyday lives is water. There are so many communities out there that don’t have access to clean water, or don’t know if there’s PFAs in their water.

So how would you describe your day-to-day duties in your position as health and safety coordinator at American Water? 

It’s a mixture of interacting with coworkers all over the country. We have health and safety people out in every region and a bunch of other different military bases as well that we supply water and wastewater services to. What I do is work with our injuries, so if an employee gets injured on the job, we must report that to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). I keep track of all the injuries that occur at different businesses, and that can be a little tough, since there’s so many different severities that can occur and so many different scenarios that can happen as well. I look out for these injuries, keep track of them, but looking back to my public health background, I try and figure out good initiatives and programs that work for our specific units throughout the country. So, if something happens in Pennsylvania, what corrective action can we take so that injury doesn’t occur here, but also to our employees out in California?  

What is your favorite part of your current position?  

I think my favorite part is interacting with everyone from across the nation. Sometimes when I think about it, it’s like wow, this occurred in New Jersey—is this a pattern that’s happening all the way out in Hawaii? I think finding those different patterns and trends of all these different scenarios and how they can apply on a larger scale is something that I’ve become very passionate about.

Looking back to your time at Temple, if you had to give some advice to your undergrad self, what would you tell her? 

A: Just put yourself out there even more. That’s something I tried to do at Temple; I only had a couple of friends from high school who ended up going to Temple with me. We didn’t end up rooming together or anything, but just trying to figure myself out. I became a part of Temple’s Filipino community, TUPAC, so I have a lot of lifelong friends from that organization. I wish I had tried out for Temple Diamond Gems, but you know, without that, would I have tried out for the Eagles? Maybe, maybe not. (Laughs)  

What advice would you give students who are aspiring to do something similar in public health? 

A: For public health in general, it’s a very broad field. Exploring all different areas is beneficial. I think for me, going into it, I was happy that I had the mindset of not knowing what public health was entirely. There are so many things that I can do; that was the beauty of public health, right? I didn’t realize I had an interest in nutrition and health, or an interest in water sources. Putting yourself out there and seeing how many different paths you can take is important. Don’t confine yourself to just one box. Try to explore more, see what all your different interests are, because you can surprise yourself. 

What has your relationship been like with the alumni community since graduation? 

I have my Filipino friends from TUPAC, who have been lifelong friends—we’re always hanging out with each other. Many of us still live in the Tristate area, and I hosted a Super Bowl party at my house with them. (Laughs) I’m also getting married in May, and a couple of them are in my wedding. I haven’t gone to as many specific events, but so many of the relationships I’ve forged at Temple have persisted for nearly 10 years.  

Did you have any favorite places to eat or hang out on campus? 

Beury Beach was always a good go-to spot, especially on a nice spring day. Peak senioritis, getting your blanket out with the sun shining. The pizza place on the food strip where Richie’s is was always a good spot to eat. The SAC (Gittis Student Center) was always fun, because with that Filipino organization, we would host different cultural events or bake sales.