Alumna Co-Founds Award-Winning Language App

Alejandra Aylen Molina Perez

Alumna Alejandra Aylen Molina Perez, ‘19, was recently profiled in the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (IHCC) online blog after winning an award for co-founding the app Beepboop allowing health care professionals to communicate directly with Hispanic patients in an effort to solve health inequities. Alejandra is a proud graduate of LIU’s Global College, a unique program allowing students to live and study around the world for a one-of-a-kind education without borders. LIU Global students are fully immersed in the cultures of numerous countries on five continents through a program that combines classroom instruction, field study and professional internships. Alejandra, who hails from Lima, Peru and speaks four languages, took advantage of the program and studied in Spain, Morocco, Germany, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, New York, Austria, Hungary, China and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A year ago, Alejandra launched Beepboop with co-founder Devon Saliga with the goal of humanizing online language education. Research indicated to Alejandra that patients speaking Spanish were at a disadvantage and received lower medical care because of the communication gap. Beepboop became a game changer by allowing medical professionals to easily learn Spanish medical terminology to better communicate with their patients in order to improve health outcomes. It is so impactful that the app is now used by several of the nation's top hospitals. According to the its website, the Beepboop drill is a speaking-focused, 25-minute long, online group language lesson. Users learn Spanish with a live instructor in a round-robin style where students are kept on the edge of their seats with fun speaking exercises. As reported by the IHCC blog, Beepboop grew at a rate of 60% per week after its launch, and over a twelve-month period it registered over 15,000 users. The app has become even more crucial during the ongoing pandemic. Alejandra embodies an entrepreneurial spirit but is more concerned with leaving a mark on society than making money. She is passionate about promoting equity and inclusion while giving back to the community. Beepboop won the HealthCare Entrepreneurship Community Challenge, funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, illustrating the importance that the app continues to have on the Spanishspeaking community. The entire LIU community is very proud of Alejandra as she is a great example of the importance of service for current and future students. Students like her are the primary motivation behind President Kimberly R. Cline’s transformation of the Global Service Institute under the leadership of Emmy Award-winning journalist Rita Cosby. “As a graduate of LIU Global, Alejandra traveled to many countries and witnessed first-hand the needs of communities around the world. She embodies the best of LIU’s commitment to service, and is a role model for our students who give more than 150,000 hours to service each year,” said President Cline.