{"id":25650,"date":"2020-10-08T11:01:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T15:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/?p=25650"},"modified":"2020-10-08T11:01:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T15:01:35","slug":"two-sagrado-alumni-united-by-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/two-sagrado-alumni-united-by-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Sagrado Alumni United by Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Nadya D\u00edaz y Zoribel L\u00f3pez lead the Mother Flower Products entrepreneurship project.<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/dosalumnas.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25651\" width=\"643\" height=\"360\"\/><figcaption><em>Zoribel L\u00f3pez and Nadya D\u00edaz. (Photos supplied)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By Liz Yanira Del Valle<br>Collaborator<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nature and its flowers brought two Sagrado alumni together in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherflowerproducts.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mother Flower Products<\/a>, a business project that goes beyond selling personal care products, since it is their mission and vision to build \u201c<strong>a community project with environmental commitment<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nadya D\u00edaz and Zoribel L\u00f3pez did not meet in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sagrado.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sagrado<\/a>, but something very special linked them: the <em>Nuestro Barrio<\/em> program. According to these alumni, <strong>Mother Flower Products was part of the first group of small Santurce entrepreneurs to benefit from the mentoring of the campus-based program<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201c<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nuestrobarrio.org\/inicio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nuestro Barrio<\/a><\/em> helped us meet other merchants in the area and create a solidarity network, to manage finances, accounting, among other matters,\u201d explained Nadya.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The beginning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It all started with Nadya\u2019s need to protect her oldest son\u2019s skin. The boy was born with a condition that makes him very sensitive to sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was difficult for me to get sunscreen here on the island at an affordable price. I researched the ingredients of natural sunblock and realized that I had most of them, so I decided to make it at home,\u201d the entrepreneur recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Nadya, her sunscreen passed her close circle\u2019s test, so she decided to formalize production by participating in three business incubators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<strong>Mother Flower&#8217;s sunscreen is eco-friendly with respect to coral reefs, as it does not contain toxic ingredients such as avobenzone, oxybenzone, and perfumes<\/strong>. It has been proven already that these affect and bleach coral reefs. The packaging is made of aluminum or glass, thus eliminating the use of plastic,\u201d said Nadya, who also makes balsams, ointments, oils, and repellants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/dosalumnas2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25653\" width=\"383\" height=\"381\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Coming Together<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nadya obtained a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Industrial Psychology from Sagrado in 1998 and a Master\u2019s degree in Exercise Sciences from the University of Costa Rica. Later, inspired by her love of nature, she studied Permaculture with her mentor, the Puerto Rican ethnobotanist Mar\u00eda Benedetti. Thus, she began to prepare ointments based on flowers and medicinal plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, Zoribel has a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Literary Creation but spent 16 years of her life working in customer service at the Electric Power Authority. Looking to change course and fully enter the creative world, she moved to Santurce, where she was living when Hurricane Mar\u00eda hit. There, she participated in community recovery efforts, including supporting her neighbor Nadya with her fledgling business, thus <strong>becoming Mother Flower\u2019s social media manager<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cI opted for a change in my lifestyle, I left my job, I began to create the scaffolding of the history behind this company that captivated me and, without realizing it, that saved my life,\u201d said Zoribel, who <strong>recently concluded a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sagrado.edu\/produccion-y-mercadeo-de-eventos-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Post-Bachelor\u2019s Certificate in Event Production and Marketing<\/a> offered at Sagrado<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>For Zoribel, Mother Flower also creates awareness of our consumption and actions towards the environment, so they promote reusing materials and reducing garbage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the difficulties imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this local business is still active with online sales, since both women agree that now there are more reasons than ever to continue taking care of ourselves as well as our ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nadya D\u00edaz y Zoribel L\u00f3pez lead the Mother Flower Products entrepreneurship project. By Liz Yanira Del ValleCollaborator Nature and its flowers brought two Sagrado alumni together in Mother Flower Products, a business project that goes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":25652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25650"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25656,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25650\/revisions\/25656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insagrado.sagrado.edu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}