To celebrate almost 300 episodes of Latina to Latina, for the first Monday of every month, we are counting down our top 25 episodes of all time. In between, we'll curate special playlists of some of our favorite episodes. Coming in at #25: This television executive turned entrepreneur took a major detour—mid career—to go back to school. Nely shares how that decision changed her life, as well as her insights on how to find your true purpose.

Follow Nely on instagram @nelygalan. If you loved this episode, listen to Fashion Entrepreneur Lilliana Vazquez: “Build Something for Yourself” and How Carolyn Rodz Is Connecting Entrepreneurs with Opportunities.

When her parents’ tourists visas expired, and they were no longer allowed entry into the United States, Elizabeth, an American citizen, persuaded her parents to allow her to stay in Arizona solo. She was only 15 years-old. Even as she contended with housing and food insecurity, Elizabeth managed to graduate valedictorian of her high school class, before going on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, we talk about the values tension in wanting to change the world and needing to pay rent, why the responsibilities she carried never allowed her to “let loose” like her peers, and her decision to share her story in her new memoir, “My Side of the River.”

Follow Elizabeth on instagram @lizzycancu and find her book My Side of the River here.

If you liked this episode, listen to How Travel Empowered Nikki Vargas to Bring Her Life Into Alignment and What Jennifer De Leon Had to Confront to Become the First Writer In Her Family.

In her new book, Making the Latino South, the Hunt Family Assistant Professor in History at Duke University chronicles the dramatic racial evolution of non-Black Latinos living in the American South from the 1940s to the early 2000s.

Follow Cecilia on X (formerly Twitter) @ProfCeciliaM , and learn more about her research here, and find her book here.

If you liked this episode, listen to How Natasha Alford’s Lived Experience Informs Her Political Analysis and Storytelling and For Sociologist Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve Getting Latinos to Care about Justice Reform Is Personal.