Today we’d like to introduce you to Jelitza Rivera.
Hi Jelitza, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Some people are afraid to admit that when they start off on their goal path, they have no idea where they are headed. I believe that sometimes people just need to know where they do not want to be and start moving away from that taking advantage of blessings in disguise, life lessons, and opportunities along the way. I was born in Puerto Rico. By age five, my family and I moved to New York City where I spent the next 14 years living in the housing projects of South Bronx under poverty lines. I grew up with two sisters and my parents.
My first blessing came when I started school in New York. Since I had started VPK in Puerto Rico and my parents did not speak English, I forced to take classes in Spanish all the way until middle school; as a result of that, I am fully bilingual. My first life lesson began in middle school. By the time I got to 6th, we lived in a single-parent household living on less income than before. If we wanted to buy an item that was not in my mother’s budget, we had to work harder. My sisters and I had to work selling seasonal items year-round to help my mother make ends meet. We would do things like go door-knocking selling chocolate roses for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. We worked like this for several years until we were old enough to work. In middle school, I also experience my first heartbreak when a teacher I admired told me that I would never make it in life because I did not speak English well and I was at times difficult to work with. Those words broke my heart, but they also fueled my desire to be successful. Since then, I have always worked twice as hard.
My second blessing came from my mother. Although we lived in the housing projects under poverty lines, she was a very strict, demanding, and traditional. She always expected household chores to be completed, demanded our best at school and everywhere we went and taught us all about our Puerto Rican traditions. My mother was the youngest of five women, so in my family women are strong-willed, independent, and powerful. While we lived thousands of miles away from my grandmother and aunts, my mother raised us with the same values. When I was applying to different high school programs around NYC, I kept coming across the question, “What were my life goals?” I did not have an answer. All I knew at that time was the struggle of living in poverty and working to make things better, but I had a passion for writing, so I pursued a program in creative writing. I maintained high grades and worked throughout high school in order to help my mother with the household bills. I obtained my work permit at 14 and began working in a youth program for the City of New York teaching art to little kids, and I gave my mother 50% of my earnings.
By 15, I worked 15 hours a week at Visiting Nurse Service of NY as part of a work-study program at my high school. This was my second life lesson on budgeting and finances. When I finished HS, I received two scholarships and with the help of financial aid, I was able to attend college. During college, I pursued my goal of working as a writer, and I realized that while I loved writing recreationally, it wasn’t something that I loved doing every day. While in college, I joined AmeriCorps and worked in a head start in Harlem, working with children living under poverty lines and helping them develop early literacy skills. The AmeriCorps program not only gave me a grant to pay for two semesters in college, but it also helped me find a new passion for helping others. It was then, I selected my major in English with a minor in Education. I graduated with a B.A. in English and moved to FL to become a teacher. I worked as a teacher in Central Florida for three years, teaching middle school and high school during which I worked on obtaining my master’s in education from UCF. I obtained my M. Ed. in 2006 and after three years of teaching at K-12, I went on to teach higher education.
By this time, I had gotten married and had my first child, but by 2008 my third life lesson came rushing. I had gotten divorced, I lost my house in the market crash, and I struggled to find more work, so I felt like I was back where I had started living below poverty lines and no clear idea of where I was going, except now, I was an adult with a child and it was up to me to fix it and fast. For months, I was unemployed and struggling to get basic necessities for myself and my child. Had it not been for the delay in court proceedings on evictions, I would have been homeless, but an opportunity presented itself and I took advantage of it. I took a job in sales, helping people purchase engagement rings and a part-time job as an adjunct, teaching Writing Composition to college students. I loved teaching, but I had never wanted to do sales because I hated having to go door-knocking as a kid. However, this life lesson proved to be valuable. For years, I worked as an educator helping people who come to this country looking for better opportunities learn English and get a better chance to achieve their goals. I obtained my Ph.D. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in order to provide them with the best possible education I could offer them.
I worked with students who wanted to become teachers and while I was not easy on them, I did because when I was growing up I did not get the help I needed from my teachers and it made it much harder to excel. After 12 years of formal education, I realized that people need help in many areas beyond formal education, so I decided to educate people in a different form. For the past six years, I have been creating language programs for nonnative speakers of English, and I have been educating people in finance and real estate. I educate people on budgeting, savings, insurance, and investments, so that if they can have a better and more financially comfortable future for themselves and their families. I help individuals find the perfect starter home or perfect investment property to add to their portfolio. I aid individuals in making the most profit from their real estate properties. I also create language programs that focus on speaking, listening, writing, and reading English to help nonnative speakers develop a valuable skill that at times hinders them from achieving their goals of a better future in the U.S. I no longer live below poverty lines and I am not rich, but the life lessons, the blessings, the heartaches, and the opportunities I encountered along the way have made me who I am – a strong, independent woman willing to help others achieve their goals through language education, finance, investments, and real estate.
My goals for my future are now clear, I know where I have been, where I am, and most definitely where I want to be. My goal is to positively impact the lives of as many people as I can and hopefully inspire them to do the same for others. Century21 Alton Clark 03/2015 – Actual Realtor® • Conceptualized and executed business plan to increase sales by 50% in 2018. • Analyzed the market and pinpointed targeted audiences’ preferences. • Optimized the marketing budget my leveraging social media, webinars, and networking opportunities for marketing. • Fostered relationships with community partners for business growth. • Marketed properties and services through multimedia avenues, including HD photography, HD videography, 3D tours, and print advertisement. • Systematized marketing plan and approach to achieve the goals set forth by business plan. • Estimated property values and inspected property conditions to leverage negotiations. • Generated new leads and avenues of business. • Communicated with clients from beginning of process to post-closing to ensure satisfaction with the property and transaction. • Collaborated and cooperated with lender, title agency, and other agents during transaction. Orange County Library System 03/2015 – Actual ESL Specialist • Provide instructional design and training support to strategic business initiative. • Conduct ongoing needs analysis leveraging customer feedback, field interaction, and subject-matter expertise to adjust learning strategy. • Interview stakeholders to identify knowledge skills and attitudes to develop learning/performance objectives and instructional content. • Plan, design, implement and evaluate ESL classes for adults. • Design, deliver and evaluate learning experience to improve employee’s performance. • Developed a family literacy grant proposal for the Florida Humanities council. • Received approximately $20,000 grant proposal funding for the family literacy program. • Developed the grant’s curriculum and create training modules for instructors. • Developed grant budget and tracked in-kind grant match. • Received $10,000 Dollar General Grant to expand the offerings for English classes. • Originated the data collection methodology and observation protocols. • Design and develop training material: templates and storyboards, including instructor and end-user guides, rapid guides, presentations, interactive activities, online help, job aid cards, simulations, infographics, assessments and exercises. • Coordinate and conduct small groups and individual training sessions based on staff and organizational learning needs. • Lead staff training classes on new educational program to enhance the teaching skills of staff members for work mobility. • Routinely evaluate customer and staff training and adjust staff training and educational programs. • Recruited, coordinated, and supervised volunteers (42 volunteers). • Trained and supervised over 15 English class instructors. • Track, maintain and reports information and statistics. University of Central Florida 05/2013 – 08/2015 Service Learning Coordinator & Graduate Assistant • Developed and lead meetings and workshops designed to assist community partners to become effective at facilitating service learning for diverse populations. • Facilitated professional development webinars for community partners with attendance ranging from 50-200 attendees. • Developed and delivered training to both internal and external stakeholders. • Explored opportunities for student service learning experiences at several nonprofit organizations in the community and in virtual space to meet the needs of students taking classes online. • Met with faculty and departmental curriculum committees to develop course objectives and course content related to service learning. • Collaborated with course faculty to develop appropriate evaluation tools to assess attainment of course objectives related to service learning. • Coordinated approximately 3,000 hours of service learning with approximately 2,000 individuals. • Supervised students participating in service learning activities at various sites. • Served as a resource person for community partners. • Designed, developed, and implemented learning solutions for various levels within the organization. • Applied the optimal Instructional Systems Design and Adult Learning theories to produce training materials/documents; planned and developed the e-learning strategy phase. Applied principles of Instructional Design (ID) to design training programs. Conducted performance needs, gap analysis, needs assessment, audience identification, job tasks, and technological analysis. Interviewed stakeholders, functional, subject-matter experts to identify knowledge, skills and attitudes; developed learning/performance objectives and instructional content. Valencia College University of Central Florida Strayer University Columbia College International Design and Technology Tiffin University Ashford University Instructor 04/2007 – Present • Responsible for end to end instructional design of eLearning modules. Design and develop innovative and engaging e-learning modules using authoring tools, SCORM standards, and sound instructional development strategies. Evaluate and maintain e-learning courses on the Learning Management System (LMS A+). Manage and monitor course administrative tasks. Manage training/program execution and coordinate logistic aspects. • Developed syllabus for various courses that clearly outlined the course requirements, rationale, goals, and objectives. • Conceptualized and developed course curriculum based on course objectives and expected student learning outcomes. • Prepared class sessions and assignments to aid students in grasping course content and how it relates to student learning outcomes. • Created a learning environment that encouraged student involvement and participation. • Analyzed student progress and implemented necessary interventions to ensure student attainment of course objectives and learning outcomes. • Evaluated student performance and provided constructive feedback. • Designed content outlines, scripts, storyboards, interactions and production of media assets: graphics, text, audio, and video e-learning, classroom materials, facilitator guides, presentations, etc. • Designed, delivered and evaluated learning experiences to improve student performance. Pre-service teacher training (3,600 hours) Teacher training studies (1,800 hours) Undergraduate Speech Language Training (2,400 hours) General Education (10 years) EDUCATION University of Central Florida • Orlando, FL • 2015 Ph.D., Education / Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Strayer University • Orlando, FL • 2010 M.B.A., Business Administration / Human Resources University of Central Florida, FL • 2006 M.Ed. Education / Language Arts CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College • Bronx, NY • 2003 B.A., English / Education.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I was raised by a single mother during my pre-teen and teenage years. We lived in poverty. In my neighborhood in the 90s, young Hispanic girls were not expected to accomplish much, so I encountered a lot of discouraging words from teachers and grew up in a neighborhood full of drugs and violence. I moved to FL in December 2003 with no job and about 4-5 months worth of rent and living expenses. I bought a house in 2006, the same year my child was born, and separate from my husband at the time and could not find work after my annual teaching contract ended in 2007.
The mortgage loan officer put us into an interest only mortgage for ten years, so when I became a single mom, I tried to refinance, and the entire principle was owed, so I had no choice but to foreclose. I stopped making payments on my mortgage because I had to choose whether I would spend my savings on the mortgage or formula and diapers for my child. I was a single mother until 2010 when I met my current partner and father to my 2nd child born in 2014. I had no family or friends in Florida until my sister moved down 9 years ago and was able to help a bit. It is because of my experiences as a single mother dealing with bad real estate deal, that I after all of my schooling and years of traditional education decided to educate people in real estate, finances, and investments.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a real estate agent with Century21 Alton Clark. My business nickname is “Your House Doctor” which marries my Ph.D. and my love for real estate. I am a marketing specialist that focuses on using high definition photography, videography, aerial pictures, and 3D tours to market my client’s homes to help maximize their profits. I am a negotiator that works diligently to achieve a win-win deal. I specialize in helping first time home buyers achieve their real estate goals, helping veterans use their much earned VA loan to buy their homes, in helping investors find profitable properties to flip or rent.
What sets me aside from other agents is that I focus on the needs of my clients, I educate them every step of the way, I have open lines of communication with them to ensure that they understand the process and make informed decisions. I also work with a wonderful network of trustworthy lenders and inspector that have the knowledge and patience to work with my clients. As a former teacher, I give back to active teachers, active and retired military, as well as first responders and medical staff in their real estate transactions as part of Our Heroes Initiative where I give my clients a small portion of my commission to help with closing costs.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I help people set up their retirement funds, children’s college funds, and investments.
Contact Info:
- Email: Jelitza@yourhousedoctorflorida.com
- Website: Yourhousedoctorflorida.com
- Instagram: @your_house_doctor
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YourHouseDoctorFlorida
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiveraREALTOR
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCANgCvaB0bzkklzGJWdK6BQ
