Helena Correa is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil. At 13, she moved to Indiana, where she currently resides today. She attended Indiana University, Bloomington, where she majored in political science. One of her favorite things about Chicago is being able to eat food from all over the world due to the city’s culturally diverse neighborhoods. What drew Helena to Urban Initiatives was the opportunity to work with children. As a kid she played a variety of sports: gymnastics, swimming, and ballet, but her favorite sport was volleyball.
Her most embarrassing moment as a kid occurred when she was 13. After recently moving to the US, Helena and her mother were in Bath & Body Works, she saw a perfume that she liked and was going to purchase. She looked on the back of the bottle and saw that it said Eau de Toilette, Helena told her mother that she didn’t want buy it anymore because she thought that it was meant for the toilet. Her mother laughed and explained to her that the perfume was actually meant for people despite the easy confusion.
As a new Program Associate at Urban Initiatives, Helena hopes that she can have a positive impact in at least one child’s life. Looking back on her life, if she could give advice to herself as a kid, she would tell herself to relax, have fun, and enjoy being a kid because it doesn’t last forever. In her free time Helena enjoys going to the beach, hanging out with friends, and playing the card game Speed.