Celebrating the women of Osceola County

As Women’s History Month concludes, we highlight some of the women who continue to a make a difference in our community. We interviewed Alma De Villa, manager at Meliá Orlando Celebration Hotel, Dr. Amanda Wilkerson, Osceola County NAACP President, Rhesa Quainoo, First Lady of Solid Rock Community Church, and REMAX Premier Properties owner and real estate broker Daisy Lopez-Cid. As these women emerged to who they are today, they reflect on where they’ve come from.

ONG: Share a bit about how you got to where you are now.

De Villa: I am where I am right now thanks to a woman that every day pushes me to be a better person. My mother always trusted in me and even though I know it was hard to her to let me go, thanks to her I take any opportunity I can to keep growing. I studied International Relations, during one of my college breaks I had the opportunity to work in a hotel at Riviera Maya, Mexico. I absolutely loved the experience so much I decided to change my career and studied tourism. My parents moved with me to Cancun where the college was located and I had the opportunity to begin working with Melia Hotels International when I was just 18 years old as a front desk agent. Through the years I also had the opportunity to move to different properties and now I am in a second international experience, having the wonderful opportunity to do what I always wanted to, get to know and understand different people from different countries.

Quainoo: I was born in California in family of seven. In high school I found my love for music and theatre. I found it hard to relate to the community, and to comprehend with the curriculum given. When I transferred to an HBCU, it was a smaller community, but it was better for me. I felt comfortable. When I transferred to Central State University, they were still evolving their curriculum. After college, I got married at 23 to Matthew Quainoo. When you’re so young, it can be shocking, but it was a great thing for me, because that was always my goal. To get married and have a family. Now, we have three kids. I’m 29 years old, an aspiring actress, and life continues to move with me.

Lopez-Cid: I was born and raised in Brooklyn. We didn’t have much. I left New York, since I had my daughter at a young age. I wanted to give her something different than what I grew up with. I was a paralegal for a district attorney in New York, so I did the same thing when I moved to Florida. Later, I started doing real estate, which went well, and here I am 20 years later. Now I own two real estate offices and a mortgage company.

Wilkerson: All I am or want to be is a consequence of the seeds of life put in me by my parents, both retired educators. My mother, a professionally trained opera soprano and a former early childhood school teacher and administrator with a passion for the arts, instilled in me a passion of learning. My father was a football player with a lifelong interest in history and political events. Having a combined interest from both, I would define myself as a renaissance postsecondary educator. I appreciate the ability to study and evaluate knowledge, as well as disseminate it for public consumption. At the same time, I like musical entertainment. Tied all together, I am an astute Assistant Professor at a research one postsecondary institution, a recipient of the most prestigious funding a researcher can garner, a National Science Foundation awardee, and a Branch President of one of the oldest social justice advocacy groups in the nation.

ONG: What is your definition of being a woman?

De Villa: Being strong outside and fragile inside, and giving the best of what you are: the feelings, emotions, using the sensitivity to go through different things and enjoy life. Woman is caring and supporting, is doing things with passion for yourself and for others.

Quainoo: Strength, dignity, self-control. It’s brilliance, and strength a lot because women can do it all. I think back to a time where women were not allowed to do many things. Getting your doctorate, getting your bachelors, PHD. Now you can do it all! Women are strong warriors.

Lopez-Cid: A mom, a daughter, a friend, a sister. We wear many hats. A giver. A little bit of everything. We are mom AND dad most times. I don’t think a woman has a choice. I think a woman has to make a way, and do what she has to do, because no one is going to do it for her.

Wilkerson: It involves combining a very specific vocational calling with a commitment to family and community. The distinguishing feature between the for me and perhaps a man is that I can perform all the said points with refined elegance, ageless style, and a formidable personality. I have what I refer to as the Amazing Amanda Midas touch.

ONG: What advice do you have for our generation of young women and girls?

Villa: You need to believe always in yourself even those days you feel like the whole world is over your shoulders, you are strong enough to keep moving. You deserve everything you want, and you can do anything you want. Get to know you and use your feelings, your emotions to create, to do things with passion, to enjoy life in every single way, in every detail.

Quainoo: Love God first, then love yourself. It can be so easy to pick a part yourself. But just speak positivity to yourself every day. If you come across something negative, don’t stay there

Lopez-Cid: There’s nothing out there that you can’t accomplish. I thought I was going to be a legal secretary, the highest role that I could dream of. I never expected to be where I am, but with persistence, perseverance, and being consistent, you can have work; you can have life. It’s hard, but you can have it all.

Wilkerson: Embrace life with passion, and identify our actual interests and follow them with zeal. Additionally, as women, we must disprove the notion that there is no room for us at the top. We must seek out models and frameworks that will assist us in reaching and achieving our life objectives.