0.5 Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my amazing Research Assistant, María del Carmen Ibarra de la Torre, whose hours of preliminary research first identified possible professions of interest, interviewees, and interview topics. Her amazing creativity, problem-solving skills, and independent work ethic helped this book take flight.

Huge thanks are also due to Gerard Bustos and his team, the absolute best and kindest videographers on earth. Gerard went out of their way to make this project shine, from thoughtful decisions about filming locations, to productive interview suggestions, to perfect editing, with an unbelievable amount of good nature and patience along the way. What a rock star. A big thanks to Ernest Hernandez for setting up this wonderful collaboration.

Of course, this project would not have been possible without the inspiring stories of our interviewees. To Allison Yakel, Ángel Velarde, Carlos Ruvalcaba Hernández, Devin Lukachik, and Kenneth Bond, thank you for graciously sharing your experiences, thoughts, and advice with us, dedicating hours to the preliminary interview and interview process.

Perhaps this acknowledgements section can serve as a lesson to students considering different career paths–great things are possible with great teams. In your future profession, wherever it may take you, may you also have a fantastic group of collaborators lifting you up, just like I did with this book.