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The Challenge of Raising a Girl With Dreams Bigger Than Mine
I read to my daughter, a spicy little eight-month-old with a bookshelf stacked in color-coded rows. While I turn the pages, she snatches the cardboard texts from my hands, exploring each new texture mostly with her mouth. Her eyes widen at the bursts of color and the images of landscapes, people, and objects she’s meeting for the first time. This little ritual — the nightly books, the bright pages, the chewing and studying — holds my entire philosophy of parenting. Being a ca

Alina Quintana
Jan 284 min read


5 Career Questions We Were Afraid to Ask Out Loud (So We Asked Google)
As a ’90s kid with some memory of flipping through encyclopedias for school projects, I can’t think of an easier way to learn than pulling my cell phone out of my pocket and asking Google everything . Our Google searches—much like our ChatGPT threads—are deeply personal. They’re the places we go when we want information without judgment, when we’re looking for guidance without having to explain ourselves first. In many ways, Google has become our counselor and our mentor. It’

Alina Quintana
Feb 34 min read


Mental Health in the Digital Age: BetterHelp's Ethical Breach and What It Means for Us
It took me some time to gather myself and my thoughts to write this piece. I wanted to bring visibility to this issue given the lack of...

Alina Quintana
Jul 6, 20242 min read


Chicano Frankenstein a riveting sci-fi novel of love, family, and politics.
Author Daniel Olivas writes a powerful tale that illustrates profound life truths through a fantastical United States of America that has...

Alina Quintana
May 25, 20242 min read


The Art of Calculated Risk: Guiding Clients Towards Confidence and Success
During my time working predominantly with low-income, first-generation Americans, one recurring theme in our sessions was the struggle my...

Alina Quintana
Apr 27, 20242 min read


A Million Miles Away (2023): A Cinematic Journey of Inspiration for Career Development
In the tapestry of my public school years, one of the key threads woven into my personal and academic development came from films that...

Alina Quintana
Feb 10, 20243 min read


The Changing Landscape of Work: A Career Counselor Explores the 'Careers are Dying' Trend on TikTok"
The "Careers are dying" trend on TikTok has sparked an important conversation around the changing landscape of work and the values of...

Alina Quintana
Mar 27, 20232 min read


10 Tips for Career Alignment as a NBCC Fellow
Alina Quintana, M.S. 2022, B.A. 2016 She/Ella. 2020-2021 Master's Fellow, National Board of Certified Counselors/Association for...

Alina Quintana
Mar 8, 20235 min read


Tools for Achieving Upward Social Mobility for Low-Income Families
Achieving upward social mobility can seem like an impossible dream for low-income families. As a first-generation college graduate, I...

Alina Quintana
Mar 8, 20231 min read
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