TAPPA Student of the Year Ariday Castellanos

My name is Ariday Castellanos. I am Cuban and I also lived in Spain for three years with my family. I came to the United States alone in 2016, eager to make my dreams come true because this is the land of opportunity.

I remember my first job was cleaning hotels. While cleaning bathrooms and rooms, I started listening to personal development talks, it was something new to me. I met Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Oprah, and other amazing speakers who revolutionized my thinking.

Photography came to into my life coincidentally. A friend who had parties and events needed a photographer to promote them. I had a camera, but I hardly knew how to use it. He asked me to help him and said he would pay me. I accepted, without having any idea of photography, light, cameras, composition, just using my camera in automatic mode. I really enjoyed what I was doing because it allowed me to interact with and meet a lot of people. So, I decided that I wanted to learn to be a professional photographer. In school. I won a scholarship which allowed me to study Commercial Photography program at Pinellas Technical College. Thanks to clients, I was able to build my portfolio, participate in competitions, create and build my photography business and work on my passion while studying.

In 2020. I became Student of the Year and won first place in the Portrait category in the TAPPA association. I want to thank this incredible country for every opportunity and everyone who has supported me during my training. My dear teacher, Rose Romero, Dr. Campbell, Project Prosper, Marcela and my teacher, Mr. Landes, for all their knowledge, support and patience with my terrible English.

It doesn’t matter your origin, your color, or your language; the important thing is to know where you want to go and who you want to become. In life, you have two options: either you go for everything or you go for nothing, and I chose the former.