ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 For many people, personal wins are born of life\u2019s challenges. And for Gabriela Clark, a manager at The Grove Resort & Water Park Orlando in Winter Garden, her childhood experiences as a Hispanic immigrant helped shape the work ethic she now brings to recruiting and supporting others.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am grateful because all the challenges I\u2019ve gone through in life have taught me how to see it from a different perspective… It\u2019s a learning experience,\u201d said Clark.<\/p>\n
Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Clark was almost 10 when she and her siblings joined their mother in Miami.<\/p>\n
Her mother, she explained, worked at a supermarket and cleaned houses, sometimes barely making ends meet.<\/p>\n
Clark said her mother would pick up the children early from school on early release days, take them to a park for lunch, then bring them along to clean clients\u2019 homes until late in the evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it was something different. Totally different. The culture, the language. The people we left behind,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to have your refrigerator empty. I know what it is to knock on doors and say, \u2018Hey, I’ve got to feed my family.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, Clark said the experiences she \u201cresented\u201d as a child helped build her character and shaped her work ethic, following the example set by her mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never heard my mom complain. I\u2019ve never heard my mom shed a tear,\u201d Clark said. \u201cI always say, \u2018Mi mama es una dura.\u2019 She\u2019s the strongest person I\u2019ve known.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clark later worked at a hotel front desk in Miami before, years later, finding a home at The Grove Resort & Water Park Orlando.<\/p>\n
At the resort, she helps lead recruiting efforts and takes part in daily stand-up meetings where department heads share hiring updates, wins and challenges.<\/p>\n
Clark said her work is rooted in connection and helping others grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see my fingerprints in them and it\u2019s very rewarding and fulfilling,\u201d Clark said. \u201cSomebody saw something in me and they poured their knowledge and everything that they learned throughout the way. I want to pay it back to someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Hispanic Heritage Month, Clark said she thinks about other Hispanics who helped create opportunities for others, herself included.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther Hispanic people that paved the way … it was for me to say, \u2018OK, they did it, I can do it,\u2019\u201d Clark said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing I teach my son. We\u2019re Hispanic people, things were not handed over to us. We had to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 For many people, personal wins are born of life\u2019s challenges. And for Gabriela Clark, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,15464,2229,771,15465,115,1335,139,141,140,278,835],"class_list":["post-419615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-top-stories","tag-florida-inspires","tag-hispanic-heritage-month","tag-hispanic-month","tag-julie-gargotta","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}