‘Bring a little sweetness to your life via culture!’
- La Voz Latina
- May 9
- 2 min read
Escrito por Dulce Ortiz 🇬🇹
When Randi Whitehurst was forced to sell a product for a class, she, alongside her friend Nataly, created Taty’s Desserts, a company that would sell Salvadoran and Peruvian drinks and treats.
Whitehurst’s Peruvian background was always something she found dear to her heart, often reminiscing about childhood memories, the people she associates with, or even the way she looks.
Through this project, she became extremely outgoing, often putting herself out there, living off the idea that “the worst they can say is no.”
Whitehurst wasn’t always this way, though. She first attended community college while balancing a full-time job as a billing associate and invoice processor. Her busy schedule prevented her from becoming more involved in clubs or making friends.
After nearly three and a half years in this routine, she transferred to UMD in hopes of finding a new beginning. Though challenging to overcome her timid side, she signed up for organizations, such as the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), to push her out of her comfort zone.
“What stuck with me my first semester was my accounting class that I actually happened to fail — my professor said, ‘Closed mouths don't get fed.’ And that resonated with me, and it still sticks with me now,” said Whitehurst.
She quickly rose to the top, earning executive positions in ALPFA and other entrepreneurial organizations on campus. She also worked an eye-opening internship in New York City, a peak experience in her college career.
“The accumulation of all the experiences is eventually to land a job... In a world of accountants, finance people, and information systems, how am I, as a management major, gonna make it nowadays? With AI growing and data being the primary career, I told myself, well, what else is there?” she said.
She came to love the New York culture – not enough to live there but enough to appreciate its diverse beauty, often mesmerized by the range of languages she’d overhear in passing. She also discovered that she could do more with her career, motivating her to intensify her studies.
Under the accelerated UMD Plus 1 Program, she plans to earn both her bachelors and masters while seeking experiential opportunities in business management. She also plans to earn her certified internal auditor certification and possibly pursue a doctorate degree.
Through it all, she found her mom to be a big inspiration for her.
“She's been so many things growing up – single mom, provider – she's held myself and my brother in anything we needed. She's been an advocate for us, she’s been the reason why I applied to UMD,” said Whitehurst.
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