There are so many factors that affect how our lives turn out, but one of the most interesting is how our backgrounds give us unique strengths and perspectives that affect who we are as adults. We asked rising stars from the community to tell us about their background and upbringing and how they feel it’s impacted who they are today.

Denice Rivera

This has always been an interesting question for me to answer. I come from a military family, and although I was born in a fort in Kansas, I was raised between two states; Texas and California and one territory; Puerto Rico. My early days are rooted in Puerto Rico, where Spanish was my first language. I had a brief stint in Texas and spent my adolescent years in Southern California, before joining the military after high school. Read More>>

Mimi V

I was born and raised in New York until early childhood, where my passion for music and theatre arts began at the age of three. I made my stage debut with a starring role in the children’s musical theatre production “Free to be You and Me” at the Children’s Theatre in Nyack, New York. I wrote my first “real” song when I was nine, but I was always coming up with a jingle or singing around the house. The keyboard/piano was my instrument of choice growing up, but I could never (and still can’t haha) read sheet music- so I played a lot by ear. Tried the guitar for a bit and then switched my focus to vocals. Read More>>

Alexandria Denise

I was born and raised in Memphis, TN. The baby of two children so having a brother five years older than me and there were other kids around I couldn’t relate to so I was alone most of my childhood. Our neighborhood was kind of suburban and pretty peaceful with a lake and woodlands. In the 90’s and early 2000s, I would play in the woods and walk to the lake to fish– mainly find sanctuary in nature. Interestingly enough, I found peace and life lessons just being in the natural world observing true life and my interest in nature documentaries growing up enhanced that understanding and connection. Read More>>