Carlos Villafuerte

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
High School: Benjamin Franklin High School
Intended Major: Economics
Possible Career: Investment Banking

Carlos excelled in an inner-city environment in which academics were not the focus of most of his peers. He participated in Upward Bound and was selected asa Quest Scholar. Carlos was elected both senior class president and president of the Leadership Club, won leadership, service and academic awards, and was the speaker at his high school Commencement Ceremony. He was an active volunteer, taking the lead in organizing fundraisers, clean-ups and other community service projects. Carlos' other high school activities included Mock Trial, basketball and Key Club.

During winter break of his freshman year at Swarthmore, Carlos had an externship at Bear Stearns in New York City. The summer of 2006 he used his Evans fund to travel to Europe before beginning an internship in the music department of the noted LA public relations firm Rogers and Cowan, which specializes in the entertainment business. Carlos spent spring semester that year in Granada, Spain and used his weekends and class breaks to travel extensively in Europe.

At Swarthmore, Carlos founded and was head of numerous organizations including Latin Lounge, and taught massage and Salsa dancing. He also headed and coached TOPSoccer and was an ITS manager, assisting faculty and students with their IT problems. During his senior year, Carlos served as a student member of the Swarthmore College Budget Committee. He graduated as a Philosophy major and was one credit shy of a double major in Economics. After graduating he worked for Vector Marketing and after only five weeks won the top district sales award. He left Vector in the fall to travel for three months in South America. He is now working for Rough Guides. His future plans include studying, possibly in South America, to get an MBA in international business.