SF Unscripted - Isabella Criollo

Meet Isabella Criollo, incoming student government president of Santa Fe College. 

Transcript

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Welcome to Santa Fe Unscripted, the podcast that brings you the behind-the-scenes

stories of Santa Fe College.

00:00:13 Mark Barley

I'm your host, Mark Barley.

00:00:15 Mark Barley

Let's dive in.

00:00:16 Mark Barley

All right, please be joined by Isabella Criollo, current Santa Fe College student and

incoming student government president.

00:00:28 Mark Barley

Welcome to the show.

00:00:29 Isabella Criollo

Thank you so much, Mark.

00:00:30 Isabella Criollo

It's a pleasure for me to be here.

00:00:32 Mark Barley

All right.

00:00:33 Mark Barley

Well, we're going to dive right in.

00:00:35 Mark Barley

Isabella,

00:00:36 Mark Barley

Tell everyone a little bit about you, who you are, what your journey is, where you're from,

and what brought you to Santa Fe.00:00:46 Isabella Criollo

So I was born in Colombia, born and raised in the capital city, Bogota.

00:00:54 Isabella Criollo

Yeah, my family is composed by my mother, my father, and I have a big sister, which she

studies at UF, actually.

00:01:01 Isabella Criollo

and that's one of the main reasons I decided to come to Gainesville.

00:01:04 Isabella Criollo

So I did my high school, my whole school back in Colombia.

00:01:12 Isabella Criollo

When I was about to graduate, my sister was already at UF and my parents were asking me

like, hey, tell us what you're going to do with your life.

00:01:19 Isabella Criollo

I had no clear idea of where I wanted to head.

00:01:24 Isabella Criollo

I knew I wanted to study abroad.

00:01:27 Isabella Criollo

because I was always interested on, going to another country, learning about new cultures.

00:01:33 Isabella Criollo

So, and having my sister already move into the US was like my motivation to pursue maybe

a similar path.

00:01:40 Isabella Criollo

But I was really undecisive if I wanted to take like a semester, like a break semester or

something.

00:01:47 Isabella Criollo

So after, thinking and thinking and thinking,

00:01:52 Isabella CriolloMy turn ran out.

00:01:53 Isabella Criollo

I had to take a decision.

00:01:54 Isabella Criollo

So my plan was to go to UF immediately with my sister, but since I took a lot of time

thinking, I didn't apply on time.

00:02:02 Isabella Criollo

So I was like, okay, what other options do I have?

00:02:05 Isabella Criollo

And then I found Santa Fe.

00:02:07 Isabella Criollo

I found Santa Fe.

00:02:09 Isabella Criollo

My sister had some friends also studying here.

00:02:12 Isabella Criollo

And she told me she had heard good things about it and that it would be a place in which I

could start short, maybe knowing a little bit of people and getting to know the country so I

could start establishing here in the US.

00:02:25 Isabella Criollo

And that's how I came here.

00:02:26 Isabella Criollo

I applied to Santa Fe.

00:02:27 Isabella Criollo

It was really, everything like really quick.

00:02:31 Isabella Criollo

And yeah, that's how I started my journey here at Santa Fe.

00:02:33 Mark BarleyYeah, so this is your first or second year?

00:02:35 Isabella Criollo

So this is my first year.

00:02:37 Isabella Criollo

Like in August, I completed my first year.

00:02:39 Isabella Criollo

Yeah, I moved in.

00:02:41 Isabella Criollo

In August of 2025.

00:02:43 Mark Barley

Okay, so you're going into your second year?

00:02:45 Isabella Criollo

Yes.

00:02:46 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:02:47 Mark Barley

So how's life been in the country?

00:02:50 Mark Barley

I know you just went back to Colombia and you're back now.

00:02:54 Mark Barley

But how was the acclimation period

00:02:56 Mark Barley

last year, getting used to new cultures, new things, new country, all that.

00:03:03 Isabella Criollo

So thankfully, I started in an IB school.

00:03:06 Isabella CriolloThat's how I learned English, right?

00:03:08 Isabella Criollo

So thankfully, related to the language struggles, I didn't have it as hard as many people

have it.

00:03:17 Isabella Criollo

But it was like the culture here and especially the college culture is really independent.

00:03:22 Isabella Criollo

Students just go to their college usually away from their parents.

00:03:26 Isabella Criollo

That was something I struggled A lot with.

00:03:28 Isabella Criollo

I was used to be surrounded by my family.

00:03:32 Isabella Criollo

So that was the first shocking thing I deal with here.

00:03:38 Isabella Criollo

Also, I learned a lot of academic English language, but not like casual, conversational.

00:03:45 Isabella Criollo

So that's something that was

00:03:47 Isabella Criollo

challenging for me to get to talk to people in a, not in a formal way, but in a more casual

and conversational.

00:03:55 Isabella Criollo

So at the beginning it was hard to adapt.

00:03:56 Isabella Criollo

This was really hard to get to know the bus route, the grocery shopping.

00:04:02 Isabella CriolloI didn't know how to say some things or how to say chicken or, just to order in general

things.

00:04:09 Isabella Criollo

But yeah, I think it helped me a lot to have my sister by my side because thanks to her and

her experience, her prior experience,

00:04:17 Isabella Criollo

in Gainesville helped me to adapt a little bit better and easier.

00:04:21 Mark Barley

Sure.

00:04:23 Mark Barley

Now, does she live on campus at UF?

00:04:25 Isabella Criollo

No, she lives close campus, but not on campus.

00:04:28 Mark Barley

Y'all live together.

00:04:28 Isabella Criollo

Yeah.

00:04:29 Mark Barley

Okay, awesome.

00:04:30 Mark Barley

So, coming here to the US, I imagine it's a little bit scary, right?

00:04:37 Mark Barley

You're not having...

00:04:39 Mark Barley

And you're not actually going to UF with your sister.

00:04:42 Mark BarleyYou're going to a completely new place that I assume she's never been here or maybe she

has, but just in passing.

00:04:50 Mark Barley

How do you work through something like that?

00:04:55 Mark Barley

being a young adult, coming to a new country, being with your sister, but being away,

having your own thing,

00:05:07 Mark Barley

away from your sister.

00:05:08 Mark Barley

Like how did you navigate that and how has that worked out for you so far?

00:05:13 Isabella Criollo

So thankfully, again, I'm really extroverted.

00:05:17 Isabella Criollo

I think I'm not a shy person and I'm not scared of, you know, like just messing up or making

mistakes.

00:05:23 Isabella Criollo

So initially when I came here, I didn't come like with like the freshman introduction that

they usually do.

00:05:30 Isabella Criollo

So I was a little bit lost in general.

00:05:33 Isabella Criollo

The first thing I remember I did was attend to Club Rush.

00:05:35 Isabella Criollo

It was like my lifesaver.

00:05:37 Isabella CriolloI went to Club Rush and I get to know clubs and students who were interested in things that

I might be interested on.

00:05:45 Isabella Criollo

And that was the first way in which I started to include myself into college.

00:05:50 Isabella Criollo

I also saw that in classes, a lot of students are really shy to

00:05:56 Isabella Criollo

break the ice with other students.

00:05:58 Isabella Criollo

So I was afraid to do that.

00:06:00 Isabella Criollo

And Clubverse was my opportunity to actually break the ice with people with things that I

knew they were interested on.

00:06:06 Isabella Criollo

And that's how I started my leadership journey.

00:06:09 Isabella Criollo

So the first club I joined to was ISCA, which is International Student Association, I think, if

I'm not wrong.

00:06:19 Isabella Criollo

And I think I went to, the first meeting and I met actually a lot of Colombians.

00:06:24 Isabella Criollo

Gainesville is a community full of Colombians.

00:06:26 Isabella Criollo

I met a lot of Colombians and they're all international students that were in a similar

situation.

00:06:32 Isabella Criollo

So yeah, I could bond a little bit with them.00:06:36 Isabella Criollo

And yeah, that's like the first way in which I could start navigating because I had

00:06:43 Isabella Criollo

more support from other people who were in my SARE journey and also in the same space.

00:06:47 Mark Barley

Sure, yeah, and it's so important to have somebody or other, group of people that are going

kind of through the same thing you're going through, but just in their own way, right?

00:07:03 Mark Barley

Santa Fe has a large international student population from all over the place.

00:07:10 Mark Barley

And so, all right, so

00:07:13 Mark Barley

That leads us into student government, right?

00:07:17 Mark Barley

Why did you choose to pursue student government here at Santa Fe and why specifically

the president position of student government?

00:07:26 Isabella Criollo

Okay, so after I entered to ISCA as a leader, I started to get to know more of the

community, how Santa Fe worked.

00:07:34 Isabella Criollo

And I really liked the amount of opportunities that Santa Fe had to offer to all of the

students, including international students.

00:07:40 Isabella Criollo

So I met a girl, like she's one of my best friends right now.

00:07:45 Isabella Criollo

And we were wondering why there was no like a Latino club in Santa Fe.

00:07:51 Isabella CriolloBecause we were wondering like, hey, it would be nice since we have a lot of Latinos and

Hispanic in the community, why don't we have a club in which we include these people

and we bring up activities that might bring us up together.

00:08:04 Isabella Criollo

And we started to inquire, go to student life,

00:08:08 Isabella Criollo

and that's when we reopened what's the Hola Club, which is a Hispanic organization for

students.

00:08:16 Isabella Criollo

In this club, I started as vice president and she started as president.

00:08:20 Isabella Criollo

I was a freshman, so I was a little scared because even though I was already getting to

know the community, I was not as familiarized with everything.

00:08:31 Isabella Criollo

So, I was like taking little steps into that.

00:08:35 Isabella Criollo

And when I was in Ola, I just fell in love with being a leader here at Santa Fe.

00:08:40 Isabella Criollo

I love feeling how students were enjoying the activities we were doing, even if they were

silly or just, like to play around and relax.

00:08:49 Isabella Criollo

A lot of students were really grateful about having a space to relax, to connect with other

people, especially with people in which they share like similar roots.

00:08:58 Isabella Criollo

Yeah.

00:08:59 Isabella Criollo

So

00:09:01 Isabella Criolloafter that experience, and now knowing a little bit more about Santa Fe, with my friend, I

started saying like, okay, there are a lot of things that Santa Fe has, but also other things

that maybe we can include, like maybe other things that can improve or that can be

created.

00:09:18 Isabella Criollo

And that's when I remember one day I entered to the, you know, my Outlook to check my

emails.

00:09:25 Isabella Criollo

And I saw Doug's e-mail from Student Life, like, hey, student government positions are

open.

00:09:30 Mark Barley

Yeah, we're talking about Dr.

00:09:32 Mark Barley

Doug Bag being over in student government.

00:09:34 Isabella Criollo

And I saw the student positions are open.

00:09:38 Isabella Criollo

And you know, I just wanted to take a look.

00:09:39 Isabella Criollo

I was not thinking of running or anything.

00:09:42 Isabella Criollo

And then, you know, when I was reading, I was like, okay, maybe there's something that

interests me.

00:09:50 Isabella Criollo

And I told my friend like, hey, this opportunity is open.

00:09:54 Isabella Criollo

Why don't we run as president and student body president?

00:09:58 Isabella CriolloShe was like, no, you're crazy.

00:09:59 Isabella Criollo

Like, we're just freshmen here.

00:10:01 Isabella Criollo

Like, what are you thinking of?

00:10:03 Isabella Criollo

We don't know a lot of people here.

00:10:04 Isabella Criollo

And it's also like scary to just, you know, try to gain people during your movement of

changing things.

00:10:12 Isabella Criollo

But I was like, no, let's do it.

00:10:13 Isabella Criollo

Like, what do we, like, what's the biggest thing we can risk or lose?

00:10:19 Isabella Criollo

And after, debating and discussing, we were serious into it.

00:10:24 Isabella Criollo

We were like, okay, let's do it.

00:10:26 Isabella Criollo

I decided to run as president since, I think it was like, I was the one who brought it up with

my friend.

00:10:35 Isabella Criollo

And, I just had a really, like a big motivation to just pursue that, dream, I guess.

00:10:44 Isabella Criollo

And yeah, that's how

00:10:46 Isabella CriolloWe initially did like the inscription to have the party ticket.

00:10:53 Isabella Criollo

And then we started the campaigning process.

00:10:55 Isabella Criollo

The campaigning process was long in terms of logistics.

00:11:00 Isabella Criollo

We tried to make a big effort on social media.

00:11:03 Isabella Criollo

We did like a platform.

00:11:05 Isabella Criollo

We were thinking of the name of our campaigning.

00:11:06 Isabella Criollo

It was called Next Step.

00:11:08 Isabella Criollo

So it was like our, like let's take the next step at Santa Fe.

00:11:13 Isabella Criollo

And

00:11:14 Isabella Criollo

it was like a two-week process of campaigning in which we tabled and talked to people

about our purpose.

00:11:21 Isabella Criollo

Our purpose was enhancing the sense of belonging at Santa Fe and allowing students to

feel Santa Fe as a home, a pace in which they could feel comfortable.

00:11:33 Isabella Criollo

So that was like our main purpose.

00:11:36 Isabella CriolloAnd we print flyers, we did like big posters to promote ourselves, we did TikTok videos.

00:11:43 Isabella Criollo

It was actually a really fun process.

00:11:45 Isabella Criollo

So yeah, that's how like the process of everything came to life.

00:11:52 Mark Barley

Were you nervous?

00:11:54 Mark Barley

Were you, I mean, were you confident?

00:11:56 Mark Barley

Like, I mean, tell me about that.

00:11:57 Isabella Criollo

So I was nervous because again, like I thought I didn't knew a lot of people.

00:12:02 Isabella Criollo

Thankfully in the campaign, I could reach out to a lot of people, you know, and talk to them.

00:12:06 Isabella Criollo

And I saw there was a lot of people who believed the same as I did.

00:12:09 Isabella Criollo

So I was like, that's nice because now it's not only what I represent, but what students

want, right?

00:12:15 Isabella Criollo

And after the two weeks of campaigning, if I'm not wrong,

00:12:19 Isabella Criollo

We had a debate after that with the other parties that were running for student

government.

00:12:27 Isabella CriolloAnd in that debate, I was really nervous because it's a debate, it was open to the public.

00:12:35 Isabella Criollo

And during that debate, I think I didn't do really well.

00:12:39 Isabella Criollo

I was really nervous and that scared me a lot for elections because I was like, people saw

that I was scared that maybe I don't have such a strong leadership skills.

00:12:51 Isabella Criollo

So I was really nervous about that when elections were coming.

00:12:55 Isabella Criollo

But I was just believing in all the effort that I did and I believed in

00:13:00 Isabella Criollo

how many people I saw were advocating for the same thing that I, that I wanted to advocate

for Santa Fe.

00:13:06 Isabella Criollo

So it was like 2 days of elections, if I were like for voting.

00:13:12 Isabella Criollo

It was like online, you just like fill out like a mini survey of, oh, who you want to vote for.

00:13:19 Isabella Criollo

And yeah, they gave the results on a Wednesday, 4 P.m., because at 4 P.m.

00:13:26 Isabella Criollo

they held the student senate meetings.

00:13:30 Isabella Criollo

And they gave the announcement.

00:13:32 Isabella Criollo

I was really nervous, super nervous.

00:13:33 Isabella CriolloI wanted, like I was hoping to get it, but I wasn't sure.

00:13:37 Isabella Criollo

So, but yeah, I finally did it.

00:13:39 Mark Barley

So in that process, did you have conversations with the outgoing student body president,

JP?

00:13:47 Mark Barley

And what kind of tell me about that if you did have those conversations and what kind of

advice he gave you?

00:13:53 Isabella Criollo

So I think that was like the second thing I did after I decided with my friend Marty that we

wanted to run for student government because I wanted to learn from experience, from his

experience.

00:14:03 Isabella Criollo

And maybe, as you said, like some advice that he could give us.

00:14:06 Isabella Criollo

I remember the first time I approached him was in an emerging leader meeting that we had.

00:14:12 Isabella Criollo

Emerging leaders is like a program that Dr.

00:14:17 Isabella Criollo

Doug runs for just

00:14:20 Isabella Criollo

training students into their leadership skills and how they can develop them.

00:14:25 Isabella Criollo

So I just reached out to him.

00:14:26 Isabella Criollo

Fortunately, they're in the same cohort.00:14:28 Isabella Criollo

So I reached out to him and I told him, hey, I'm running for a student government.

00:14:32 Isabella Criollo

I want to know your experience.

00:14:33 Isabella Criollo

How was it?

00:14:34 Isabella Criollo

Some advices.

00:14:36 Isabella Criollo

The first thing that he told me was about having a purpose, right?

00:14:39 Isabella Criollo

Like how student government, even if it sounds like amazing in your resume and if it's like a

good position to run for, that the thing that would stand out and the thing that would

00:14:51 Isabella Criollo

be more impactful in my journey is to have a purpose of why I'm doing that.

00:14:56 Isabella Criollo

He told me a little bit about what he advocated for during this campaign, during his

campaigning, you know, how was the competition between other parties, because that's

also a big thing that you experience.

00:15:10 Isabella Criollo

And yeah, like he just, he, like I shared with him some of my ideas.

00:15:15 Isabella Criollo

He told me that he liked what he saw and the passion that I have into it.

00:15:20 Isabella Criollo

And he, through the journey, I reached out to him a lot, actually, and he helped me a lot

with how I was shaping my campaign and how I was wanting to run for student

government.00:15:32 Mark Barley

That's and it's awesome that the relationship aspect of that.

00:15:40 Mark Barley

can be passed down, right?

00:15:41 Mark Barley

And somebody can share their advice and their experiences with somebody who they don't

know if you're going to be in that position, right?

00:15:51 Mark Barley

I mean, you're talking about during the election season and the process and the campaign

process.

00:15:57 Mark Barley

So, really appreciative of him passing that information to you.

00:16:01 Mark Barley

All right, so you're student government president.

00:16:07 Mark Barley

How does student government

00:16:10 Mark Barley

work at the college.

00:16:13 Mark Barley

Like kind of share, and I don't know if you've met her yet, we had Laurel Woolsey, the

Senate president on the podcast a little while ago.

00:16:26 Mark Barley

So tell us about how student government plays into the larger decision-making process at

the college.

00:16:34 Isabella Criollo

So student government has three branches.

00:16:38 Isabella CriolloIt's divided into, actually it's like 4, sort of.

00:16:41 Isabella Criollo

It's the judicial branch, which is like we have right now the chief of justice and it's in charge

of running elections and making like a fair environment for students.

00:16:51 Isabella Criollo

The other branch is programs chair, which is in charge of events and to be helping Santa Fe

live from major events here at Santa Fe.

00:16:59 Isabella Criollo

The next branch is the legislative, which is the Senate.

00:17:02 Isabella Criollo

The Senate for students is mostly focused on helping clubs

00:17:08 Isabella Criollo

club funding and just supporting clubs, student clubs.

00:17:14 Isabella Criollo

And the last one is executive branch, which is the branch I make part of with the vice

president and the treasurer.

00:17:21 Isabella Criollo

So in executive branch, both the vice president and the president need to attend some

meetings that are part of the executive branch from the overall college.

00:17:35 Isabella Criollo

So

00:17:36 Isabella Criollo

what we do is basically we're a bridge between the administrative and the faculty and the

students.

00:17:42 Isabella Criollo

So for instance, me, I get to go to a lot of meetings in which I get to put my input as a

student and I get to understand also why

00:17:52 Isabella Criollothe decision making of the college has been held the way it is.

00:17:56 Isabella Criollo

So that's basically the way in which the shared governance is established for us to be part

of the, not only the, like the making, the, like the decision making process, but also

00:18:13 Isabella Criollo

for me to share the information to the student body as a whole.

00:18:17 Isabella Criollo

And the Vice President, Maddie, also she needs to attend to other half of meetings for her

to share and also contribute to this information.

00:18:25 Mark Barley

Yeah, so when you have, you meet with your cohorts, right, and you have an idea or a

question that only can be asked of maybe the faculty or the administration,

00:18:41 Mark Barley

How would you go about that?

00:18:42 Mark Barley

How would you take that student concern or just like a general question to the larger

administrative body?

00:18:52 Mark Barley

What's the process behind that?

00:18:54 Isabella Criollo

So usually there are cabinet meetings held monthly if I'm not wrong.

00:18:58 Isabella Criollo

So that's usually the space in which I have

00:19:02 Isabella Criollo

like a designated space to talk and bring my concerns or bring any updates that I want to

bring to the whole executive cabinet from Santa Fe.

00:19:10 Isabella CriolloSo that's the space I usually use in order to bring up concerns or any questions that maybe

the student body has or that I have related to any of the decisions that are being taken by

the overall executive cabinet.

00:19:24 Mark Barley

Awesome.

00:19:24 Mark Barley

What goals do you have for your time as student government president?

00:19:29 Isabella Criollo

Okay, so the three things that I advocated for mostly during my campaigning process was

what we call the 3C initiative, which was cultivation, well, cultivating, connecting, and

creating.

00:19:44 Isabella Criollo

So what we want to cultivate are those things that we love about Santa Fe.

00:19:50 Isabella Criollo

And for instance, our

00:19:52 Isabella Criollo

the volunteering experiences that Santa Fe offers to students or all of the student life

efforts to connect students with the activities that are going on with the celebrations that

are here in Santa Fe.

00:20:07 Isabella Criollo

We want to cultivate those spaces

00:20:10 Isabella Criollo

by just, maybe modifying things that can improve or just promoting them more.

00:20:15 Isabella Criollo

Because I think one thing that Santa Fe struggles a little bit with is with sharing information.

00:20:21 Isabella Criollo

Yeah, because Santa Fe, I think by now I don't have all the information of all of the

resources that Santa Fe has available.00:20:28 Isabella Criollo

So I think, you know, cultivating those parts that are not only working but that are amazing

at what makes Santa Fe special could be amazing to just keep enhancing the sense of

belonging.

00:20:40 Isabella Criollo

By creation, we wanted to create spaces in which students could find themselves and

share their talents or showcase their interests.

00:20:47 Isabella Criollo

So for instance, we had two main initiatives for this creation part, which was creating a

student's business fair in which students, entrepreneurs, could showcase their business

and could also create a network of support among students.

00:21:02 Isabella Criollo

And the other one was an alumni fair in which we can bring back all past students at Tena

Fe and connect with the present community.

00:21:10 Isabella Criollo

so they can get advice or we can just create again a network of support among students.

00:21:16 Isabella Criollo

And for it was creation, cultivation, and connection.

00:21:22 Isabella Criollo

For connection, we wanted to connect more faculty members with students.

00:21:27 Isabella Criollo

Sometimes we've perceived that students have struggles with navigating when they're

freshmen especially, but they don't know who to go.

00:21:36 Isabella Criollo

to ask these questions or to have this information.

00:21:39 Isabella Criollo

So we want to connect people more, connect them with information, with resources, with

faculty members, and with the community that's there to support them.00:21:47 Isabella Criollo

So yeah, those are like my 3 main goals that I want to achieve as president.

00:21:52 Isabella Criollo

And I think like personal goals, I just want to grow as a leader.

00:21:57 Isabella Criollo

I want to learn how to manage teams, because I think that's like a really important skill

00:22:04 Isabella Criollo

that I'm going to be using throughout my whole life.

00:22:07 Isabella Criollo

And I just want to be able to help students love Santa Fe and for them to feel as

comfortable as I do here.

00:22:18 Mark Barley

So you touched on kind of the reason why this podcast exists is the informational aspect of

what's happening at Santa Fe, who people are and what their jobs is and what their

departments do.

00:22:31 Mark Barley

So why do you think

00:22:34 Mark Barley

in your personal opinion, that the information dissemination at Santa Fe isn't great.

00:22:40 Mark Barley

And how do you hope to improve that?

00:22:46 Isabella Criollo

So one of the main things that I believe are

00:22:52 Isabella Criollo

not allowing all the information to get to students is that we have a lot of ways to access

this information, like a lot of networks for us to access that information.

00:23:02 Isabella CriolloAnd when information is that spread out, it's harder to get to it, right?

00:23:07 Isabella Criollo

So students sometimes don't have the time to go through all these steps to get to the

information.

00:23:13 Isabella Criollo

And that's why sometimes it just gets lost.

00:23:16 Isabella Criollo

So actually, one of our proposals, which is

00:23:20 Isabella Criollo

A little ambitious was to create a Santa Fe app.

00:23:23 Isabella Criollo

Looking forward to creating a Santa Fe app that could convey all of the resources, all of the

information in just one place.

00:23:30 Isabella Criollo

So having this app could help students don't struggle with this, like getting the information.

00:23:39 Isabella Criollo

But just having them all structured and organized in one single place.

00:23:42 Isabella Criollo

So I think that's one thing that Santa Fe can look forward and then can work.

00:23:47 Isabella Criollo

So everything can be promoted in the same space and students are not lost in where to

access information.

00:23:53 Mark Barley

Yeah.

00:23:54 Mark Barley

So you need to be connected with folks over in IT.

00:23:57 Mark BarleyYou need to be connected with the folks here at marketing communications.

00:24:02 Mark Barley

So yeah, that's a wonderful goal.

00:24:06 Mark Barley

And I love the idea of having all the information in one place where you can access it from

the tip of your fingertips, the top of your fingertips.

00:24:15 Mark Barley

And so talk about your personal goals and where do you see yourself in five years and what

is the ultimate goal at the end of your educational journey?

00:24:30 Isabella Criollo

So that's a tricky question because back in my hometown, my home country, I always, I

knew that I wanted to be a lawyer.

00:24:40 Isabella Criollo

That was like my big main goal in life, I think.

00:24:45 Isabella Criollo

However, when I moved here to the US, I realized that becoming a lawyer here, it's way

different than what it looks like in my home country.

00:24:53 Isabella Criollo

It's a little bit harder.

00:24:55 Isabella Criollo

I didn't know

00:24:57 Isabella Criollo

law, it's not like an undergrad program here, but it's like more of a doctorate, like post-

education thing.

00:25:05 Isabella Criollo

So, when I got here, I was a little bit confused of what I wanted to do now.

00:25:11 Isabella CriolloAnd I navigated through, political science, criminal justice, unsure of what to do.

00:25:17 Isabella Criollo

And now finally, I'm thinking I'm leading more towards like the business track.

00:25:23 Isabella Criollo

I think

00:25:25 Isabella Criollo

one of the biggest reasons for this is that I am really passionate about leadership.

00:25:31 Isabella Criollo

And I think I can cultivate this passion that I have from leadership through this career.

00:25:38 Isabella Criollo

So yeah, I don't know if the law thing is going to be a final destination.

00:25:42 Isabella Criollo

For now it is.

00:25:43 Isabella Criollo

Like I want to go to law school after finishing my business degree.

00:25:47 Isabella Criollo

But yeah, for now that's like the plan.

00:25:49 Isabella Criollo

After like

00:25:51 Isabella Criollo

Graduating, if everything goes as I plan, and spring from Santa Fe, and I might be

transferring to UF.

00:26:00 Isabella Criollo

And after my business track, I think I'll go to law school, maybe in UF or I don't know yet.

00:26:06 Mark Barley

Yeah, I know it's hard to get into.00:26:08 Mark Barley

But no, that's, it's a wonderful, you know, and I don't say this to like make you think that

you're not gonna do it, but

00:26:19 Mark Barley

It'll probably change, right?

00:26:21 Mark Barley

The track and the idea and you'll finish with your business degree and you'll be like, oh

man, I really want to go do this now, right?

00:26:29 Mark Barley

And Gainesville, the larger Gainesville area has such a wide array of avenues that it can

take you, especially at UF.

00:26:39 Mark Barley

So is the goal to go back to Columbia?

00:26:43 Isabella Criollo

No, I plan to stay here.

00:26:45 Isabella Criollo

Yeah, I really like it.

00:26:47 Isabella Criollo

love the way in which opportunities are there, right?

00:26:51 Isabella Criollo

Like you can access opportunities.

00:26:53 Isabella Criollo

Of course, it takes a lot of effort and time to get to these opportunities, but I think they're all

are worth it.

00:26:58 Isabella Criollo

So yeah, I just, and I already got comfortable by getting to know new people.

00:27:04 Isabella CriolloAnd yeah, I think.

00:27:08 Mark Barley

I'm going to establish new videos.

00:27:12 Mark Barley

being here in this position at Santa Fe and then your connections that you'll continue to

make as your time as student government president.

00:27:20 Mark Barley

So I didn't send you this question and you talk about leadership and so I'm gonna throw a

curveball at you if you understand that.

00:27:30 Mark Barley

But as an international student in this position, what do you say to somebody that's coming

from outside the United States

00:27:41 Mark Barley

that is maybe apprehensive because of the state that the conversation that is continuing to

happen in this country regarding international individuals, right?

00:27:56 Mark Barley

I'm specifically talking about, somebody coming from outside the country and then having

maybe the thought of, hey, what happens if I get

00:28:07 Mark Barley

am I going to be made to leave the country?

00:28:12 Mark Barley

kind of explain your thought process as somebody that is an international student and kind

of your just advice and what you would tell somebody that's maybe apprehensive about

starting that journey.

00:28:27 Isabella Criollo

So I think with that journey comes a lot of fear, especially as you say, related to like this

00:28:35 Isabella Criollo

uncertainty that wanders around all this situation that's going on in the country.00:28:41 Isabella Criollo

I think my advice would be just take things low, right?

00:28:45 Isabella Criollo

Like don't be too harsh on yourself.

00:28:46 Isabella Criollo

Sometimes we, you know, here, since we have a lot of challenges, not only as international

students, but maybe with stereotypes that come from the outside, I think sometimes us

international students are really harsh on

00:29:02 Isabella Criollo

struggling and making mistakes because we try to be the people who we used to be in our

home countries.

00:29:11 Isabella Criollo

So I think my best advice would be just like take it easy, right?

00:29:15 Isabella Criollo

Like don't be that hard on yourself because it's a tough process.

00:29:19 Isabella Criollo

Like not only to rediscover yourself in another country, but to build your pathway.

00:29:26 Isabella Criollo

And a pathway building uncertainty is like hard to

00:29:30 Isabella Criollo

maintain with a positive mindset, right?

00:29:32 Isabella Criollo

So I would just say like, be patient.

00:29:35 Isabella Criollo

Don't be too harsh on yourself.

00:29:37 Isabella Criollo

And taking risks as well.00:29:40 Isabella Criollo

I think sometimes this fear limit us to challenge ourselves, especially like not only the

academic aspect, but also in the personal one by taking leadership positions or, you know,

like just going out and

00:29:54 Isabella Criollo

searching for more opportunities.

00:29:55 Isabella Criollo

So I think that would be like my main advice for students.

00:29:59 Isabella Criollo

Awesome.

00:30:00 Mark Barley

Well, I appreciate that and as an unsolicited question.

00:30:05 Mark Barley

All right, so we end every episode with what we call 5 quick questions and Steve who's

producing still has not gotten the game show music for this portion of the podcast.

00:30:17 Mark Barley

So we'll just pretend that we had some music here, but

00:30:21 Mark Barley

All right, so I'm asking you 5 quick questions.

00:30:23 Mark Barley

You just give me the answer right off the top of your head.

00:30:25 Mark Barley

All right.

00:30:26 Isabella Criollo

Perfect.

00:30:27 Mark Barley

All right, favorite TV show?00:30:30 Isabella Criollo

That's a tough one.

00:30:32 Isabella Criollo

Favorite TV show?

00:30:33 Isabella Criollo

Okay, I'll say The Lincoln Lawyer.

00:30:35 Mark Barley

Okay, Lincoln Lawyer.

00:30:36 Mark Barley

Okay, cool.

00:30:37 Mark Barley

Have you ever seen the movie The Lincoln Lawyer?

00:30:39 Isabella Criollo

No, I have not.

00:30:39 Mark Barley

With Matthew McConaughey.

00:30:41 Isabella Criollo

No, I just watched the series.

00:30:42 Mark Barley

No, the series?

00:30:42 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:30:43 Mark Barley

All right, last movie you saw.

00:30:47 Isabella Criollo

It was actually the Odyssey.00:30:48 Mark Barley

The Odyssey.

00:30:49 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:30:49 Mark Barley

What'd you think?

00:30:50 Isabella Criollo

I like it.

00:30:50 Isabella Criollo

I really like it.

00:30:51 Isabella Criollo

was an immersive experience.

00:30:53 Isabella Criollo

Yeah, it was nice.

00:30:54 Isabella Criollo

It was really, really good movie.

00:30:56 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:30:57 Mark Barley

Did you see it in IMAX?

00:30:58 Isabella Criollo

No, I did not have the channel.

00:30:59 Mark Barley

Yeah, you got to see it in IMAX.

00:31:01 Mark Barley

Yeah.00:31:01 Mark Barley

All right.

00:31:02 Mark Barley

When you're not at school, people can find you where.

00:31:08 Isabella Criollo

So I think maybe.

00:31:11 Isabella Criollo

In the Lyceum, but that's at school.

00:31:17 Isabella Criollo

I mean, I felt like apart from the classroom.

00:31:20 Mark Barley

So you play the piano.

00:31:21 Isabella Criollo

I play the piano, yeah.

00:31:22 Isabella Criollo

But maybe, as you say, apart from that, maybe in Gator Salsa.

00:31:27 Isabella Criollo

It's like downtown.

00:31:28 Isabella Criollo

Like a club, like dancing club downtown.

00:31:31 Isabella Criollo

I like to go there.

00:31:32 Mark Barley

So you're a big, big dance aficionado.

00:31:34 Mark Barley

You like, you know, you been dancing a long time.00:31:37 Mark Barley

Just salsa though.

00:31:38 Isabella Criollo

No, everything.

00:31:40 Isabella Criollo

I like to learn a lot.

00:31:41 Mark Barley

And the salsa club introduces you to other types of dance or just salsa.

00:31:45 Isabella Criollo

So in the dance club, I get to dance salsa, bachata.

00:31:49 Isabella Criollo

And sometimes we do like merengue or like other types of like Latin dancing.

00:31:55 Mark Barley

Okay, awesome.

00:31:56 Mark Barley

All right.

00:31:56 Mark Barley

Favorite place in Gainesville?

00:32:00 Isabella Criollo

It's anywhere.

00:32:06 Isabella Criollo

Favorite place in Gainesville?

00:32:09 Isabella Criollo

That's a hard one.

00:32:10 Isabella Criollo

So I have this favorite restaurant, which is called Tella.00:32:14 Isabella Criollo

I don't know if that might be like my favorite place, but I just love to go there and just, you

know, like eat my food, talk with my friends, or where else?

00:32:25 Isabella Criollo

That's a tough one.

00:32:26 Isabella Criollo

I think I would choose Tella.

00:32:28 Mark Barley

Okay, all right, cool.

00:32:29 Mark Barley

All right, favorite thing about Santa Fe?

00:32:32 Isabella Criollo

Favorite thing about Santa Fe?

00:32:35 Isabella Criollo

I'll say, well, it's a little, cheesy, but like the community.

00:32:41 Isabella Criollo

I'll say, I've received a lot of warmth of people here and a lot of, I feel like welcome in this

community.

00:32:51 Isabella Criollo

So I think I'll say the people.

00:32:53 Mark Barley

The people.

00:32:53 Mark Barley

Everybody that sat in that chair has said the people.

00:32:56 Mark Barley

And so I'm positive that the best thing about Santa Fe is actually the people.00:33:02 Mark Barley

So all right, so

00:33:03 Mark Barley

where can people go to find you?

00:33:08 Mark Barley

Either get in contact with you here at Santa Fe or if you want to plug any type of social

media, it doesn't matter.

00:33:14 Mark Barley

How can people get a hold of you?

00:33:16 Isabella Criollo

Okay, so I actually have an office in the S building, first floor, office 151, if I'm not wrong.

00:33:24 Isabella Criollo

There you can find me.

00:33:25 Isabella Criollo

I have some office hours.

00:33:26 Isabella Criollo

I don't know them yet, but I have some office hours there.

00:33:28 Isabella Criollo

You can just ask for me there.

00:33:31 Isabella Criollo

Also, I have an institutional e-mail for student government, which is SG president at SF

college dot Edu Edu.

00:33:40 Mark Barley

So that's SG president at SF college.

00:33:44 Isabella Criollo

Edu.00:33:44 Mark Barley

Okay.

00:33:46 Isabella Criollo

Or we also have social media.

00:33:48 Isabella Criollo

On Instagram, we have student government.

00:33:52 Isabella Criollo

I think it's like SF student government.

00:33:56 Isabella Criollo

I'm not sure how the ad is.

00:33:58 Isabella Criollo

But you can find us in Instagram.

00:33:59 Isabella Criollo

Also, we have our own campaigning platform, which is called Next Step, SF Next Step.

00:34:05 Isabella Criollo

You can follow their own Instagram.

00:34:08 Isabella Criollo

And yeah, I think that's all the ways in which you can find us.

00:34:13 Isabella Criollo

And if you're a student here in this podcast, we're also currently recruiting for our executive

cabinet team.

00:34:20 Isabella Criollo

We're looking for positions such as social media manager, communications director,

outreach coordinator,

00:34:28 Isabella Criollo

Executive Assistant and Chief Information Officer.00:34:33 Isabella Criollo

So if someone there is interested in applying for these positions or getting more involved in

the community, you can just e-mail me at sgpresident@sfcollege.edu and you can apply

there for the position.

00:34:47 Mark Barley

It's a mouthful, but you'll get used to saying it for sure.

00:34:51 Mark Barley

Isabella, thank you so much for taking the time out to tell us your story, tell us about your

journey to Santa Fe, and I wish you so much success as student government president.

00:35:03 Mark Barley

Thank you.

00:35:04 Isabella Criollo

Thank you so much, Mark.

00:35:05 Isabella Criollo

It was a pleasure to be here.

00:35:12 Mark Barley

If you found this podcast informative, there's more to discover on our website,

sfcollege.edu.

00:35:18 Mark Barley

You can also follow Santa Fe on all your favorite social media platforms, X, Facebook,

Instagram, YouTube,

00:35:24 Mark Barley

We're there at Santa Fe College.

00:35:26 Mark Barley

Give us a like, follow, and a subscribe.

00:35:29 Mark Barley

Have suggestions on who you want to hear from next or watch your story featured on the

podcast?00:35:33 Mark Barley

Send us an e-mail at communications@sfcollege.edu.

00:35:38 Mark Barley

Thanks for listening and go Saints.