It was a dream she chased half-way around the world to achieve, but Adriana Espejo Sanchez has found success and is now working to accomplish her goals in Adelaide.

Armed with her positive attitude towards helping people and her Master of Science in Public Policy and Management (MSPPM) degree, she is now using her skills to help alleviate poverty around the world.

“I’ve always wanted to work for the community and try to help people and everything has worked toward that – with Coffey, with CMU, with Colombia,” she said.

It was Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) that first brought Adriana to Australia, as after researching Adelaide’s many universities online she found one with a motto that matched her own.

“All we want at CMU is to put our heart into benefitting the community, to benefit the people,” she said.

“That’s what drives CMU and that is what I’ve always thought in Colombia because I came here to learn how to help people in Colombia,” she said.

While studying for her degree she was also given the opportunity to develop projects of benefit to some of the local councils around Adelaide.

The experience encouraged her to get involved in the community and to meet people while benefitting the local area.

Today Adriana extends her skills to the international community, helping people from developing countries by managing projects at Coffey International Development.

“International development is one area that is completely related to my studies. It is one area that really impassions me, and that I like a lot,” she said.

Not only does her job at Coffey combine her two great loves of travel and helping people, but it also allows her to apply the knowledge and skills she has gained at CMU to a global level.

Throughout her career Adriana has continued to carry her personal mottos with her, including staying positive and using her skills to benefit people, which she sees herself continuing in the future.

“I’m working here, but I always think that I will go back to Colombia and help Colombia in some way,” she said.

“To come here, to study in Adelaide, to learn the culture – and then being able to go back with new ideas, with a new vision of the world … it opens up your mind to all the possibilities you can use to help people.”