My name is Ambar Castillo (AC), and I am ecstatic about my adventures as a Theatre major at LAGCC.

I started out as a Latin American Studies major and journalism-Spanish minor in college, convinced I would work in a Spanish media outlet and be the next Telemundo or Univision newscaster calling out "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL" in a sport-altering soccer game.

After dabbling in college radio news, magazine, and feature writing, I interned at WNBC one summer. As an intern, I promoted intercultural awareness by researching, interviewing, and successfully proposing thought-provoking newsmakers as Weekend Today show guests. My goal: to educate viewers by presenting such new elements as the musical stylings of Puerto Rican rapper brothers starring in New Muslim Cool, and The Domestic Crusaders, the first major Muslim-American play since 9/11. Mission accomplished? I could never know. What I do know is that I glimpsed intercultural education through its capacity for social awareness, starting with adjusting my own lens.

After college, seeking a way to more directly impact education, I volunteered in AmeriCorps as a Nutrition Educator and Geriatric Case Manager for a year, and then decided to join the field of school education. After teaching all levels and ages (seniors, young and middle-aged women, high school students as well as elementary and middle school students), and fascinated with the expressive language work I was doing with one student with a speech disability, I enrolled and graduated from a Pre-Speech Language Pathology program. 

Just recently, during a trip to South India (involving taking North Indian snack cooking classes, free food tours in Mysore, visits to an authentic ghee-making facility, and breathtaking performances like that of Kathakali Indian dance-drama), my best friend/traveling partner and my experiences in South India helped me re-discover the fields I longed to delve into: creative communication (theater) and public health-nutrition.

For years I had been boring friends and family with nutrition information and dietary recommendations--when I wasn't entertaining them with songs and creative short stories I had written.

Since my teenagehood, I had hidden in the magazine aisle during family supermarket trips, perusing and pouring over health, wellness, and nutrition articles.

Since the start of my adult life, I had been experimenting with all kinds of different diets: Paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, high-protein, vegetarian, green drinks-focused.

At work, I was known as both the school nutritionist and theatre-maker and often found myself consulting colleagues on how to best meet their fitness/weight goals and creating teacher training skits and producing music videos starring our students.

How had I never connected this zest for theatre and nutrition with a field I could dedicate my life to, and not think of as just work?

"Kal Ho Naa Ho" (the title of one of the first Bollywood films I ever watched) means, loosely, "Tomorrow may never come," and is one of the quotes I like to reflect on whenever life seems too expansive, with too many options and fear-inspiring jumps.

On the trip to India, and afterwards, I consciously made the decision to jump, to take the route of challenging science/nutrition courses for the sake of empowering others with my positive energy and passion for all things wellness. Kal Ho Naa Ho. Life is too short to not do what I was destined to do.

What's your "Kal Ho Naa Ho" reason for inspiring yourself and others?

About My Major: Theatre

http://www.laguardia.edu/Theater/

A Few of my Fave Campus Services:

• Multicultural Exchange (BMEC/CREAR Futuros/LGBTQAI/The Hub): I mentor and connect with students spanning races, religions, gender identities, languages, and immigrant status, exchanging ideas/opportunities daily. We also have a strong social justice component, with ardent adult guest speakers and peer-facilitated R.E.A.L. talks and debates about current issues.

• Women's Center: Girl Power! Express yourself! 

This center offers such a range of activities, as diverse as we are. Some of my favorite events hosted by the WC are: the Latin Heritage Art Workshop and "Macho Men and the Women Who Love Them" (below).

• Wellness Center (because, well, who doesn't want to get and stay well, mentally, physically, and all?!)

The Health Services clinic directed me to this cool, relevant resource--the Wellness Center--a place that understands that health and wellness is a holistic experience.