I was born and raised in a small coffee-growing town in Costa Rica called Santa Maria de Dota. In this town, the income mainly comes from coffee farming, and this is the way that my parents supported our family. I attended both school and high school in this town, but when it was time to start my university studies, I moved to the city.

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My undergraduate studies were in English Teaching at the University of Costa Rica. As soon as I graduated with a B.A., I started my Master's in English Teaching as a Foreign Language. Once I finished my Master's, I started working at the University of Costa Rica where I taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses. 

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In 2018, I was awarded a Fulbright-Laspau scholarship for my doctorate studies in Learning Design and Technology at Purdue University. In August 2019, I moved with my husband and my daughter to West Lafayette to start my Ph.D. studies. 

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The journey in my doctoral studies has been fascinating. I have developed new skills related to quantitative research, research methodologies, technological tools, design and development of learning, and underlying theories to support research and the design of learning experiences. As my research interests are tightly close to my background as an English teacher, I always look for ways of contextualizing all the experiences and new knowledge to the field of second language learning and English language learning, which are my main academic and research interests.