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Relentless Ally

La Familia es Todo

When Florida Project Manager Mauro Rosales first came to the U.S. in 2011, family meant everything. In a very real sense, family was all he had.

For the sake of his family’s safety and Mauro’s own career potential, his parents, Mauricio Rosales and Valbi Rangel, made the difficult decision to leave successful professional careers in Caracas, Venezuela and immigrate to the Doral suburb of Miami, Florida. The three spoke little to no English at the time but quickly began learning, navigating school and jobs to make ends meet along the way.

In the 13 years since, Mauro has taken his parents’ gifts – of opportunity, of unconditional support, of strong values – and run with them, creating a successful career as a construction professional. At every step, Mauro’s parents and remaining family in Venezuela have naturally remained his foundation, but one reinforced by his found and created families throughout school and into his career. And rather than focus his success and project management gifts inward, Mauro is now giving back as the team leader for �۽�ֱ��’s 2024 Bridges to Prosperity team, leading the charge to build a footbridge in rural Rwanda that will connect communities to education, water and food year-round.

Leaving Everything Behind

Mauro was 16 when his family resettled in Doral. While still a young age, and young enough to quickly adapt to a new culture, new language and new way of life, 16 is still old enough that leaving everything behind was a profound and lasting loss. Nothing was as difficult as the family who stayed. Mauro’s great-grandmother Angela had lived with his family his entire life, but at the age of 101 was unable to follow them to Florida.

“All of my friends, all of my family, my entire life was back in Venezuela, and that was very difficult to leave behind,” Mauro recalls. “Still, Venezuela was and still is going through a very hard political and economic situation, and I know deep inside that it was the best decision to give my family better opportunities.”

While his immediate family was a crucial system during the initial challenges of relocation, Mauro says that a newfound family – fellow students at Ronald Reagan Doral Senior High School in a large community of Venezuelan immigrants – helped create a new sense of community and a shared vision for brighter futures.

“I found good people with stories similar to mine, and they’re still my best friends today,” Mauro says. “We supported each other through school, through jobs and through the entire process of adapting to a new place and culture.”

Connecting with Construction

Mauro worked as a restaurant waiter through the remainder of school, and when considering higher education and career paths after high school, family again shaped the direction of his life. Mauro intended to pursue a civil engineering degree and an architectural career, but his uncle Ernesto Rangel, an engineer back in Venezuela sagely advised a slight change of course: with Mauro’s natural relationship-building skills, a field career might suit him better. His uncle was absolutely right

 “I continued studying engineering and design, but my uncle’s wisdom and my first internship made me reconsider,” Mauro recalls. “Working in the field, I still got to experience the aspects of design I most enjoyed, but I also got to have a better feel for the environment, build bridges between people and solutions and coordinate complex problems. I knew this was my path.”

Throughout university, Mauro’s family, both born and found, remained his touchstone. Both at Miami Dade College and later at the University of Florida, Mauro found large communities of Hispanic and Latin American students who understood and valued his roots and shared his drive to excel in construction.

His layers of support systems, including a roommate and classmate with a similar background, translated into a successful educational career and he soon landed his first construction job with �۽�ֱ��, recruited as a project engineer and mentored by Project Executive Tom Stedem. Even better, his roommate joined him.

Mauro has since followed Tom to several successful Florida projects, created his own successes and now serves as an Assistant Project Manager on the Broward County Convention Center and Hotel project in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Giving Back

When Mauro first heard of �۽�ֱ��’s partnership with Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), he was instantly drawn to the mission and intended to apply for the team as soon as he was eligible. He didn’t, but regretted it immediately when the same roommate was selected for the 2022 B2P team. From that point, Mauro knew that his participation in B2P wasn’t a question of “if” but “when.”

“Bridges to Prosperity is a great opportunity for me to contribute to something real, lasting and life-changing for many families,” Mauro says. “I grew up relatively fortunate in Venezuela, but the conditions for rural Rwandans are not unlike situations I remember from back home, so I understand how this could impact the lives of people who need it most.”

As leader of our 2024 B2P team, Mauro is faced with a difficult task: coordinating a team of ten from every corner of �۽�ֱ��’s US operations (yet another found family), spurring each teammate on to contribute to a successful and safe accelerated two-week bridge build. Despite the monumental logistical effort of the task at hand, Mauro’s focus, as ever, is on the people involved – both the families being served and the team traveling to serve.

“I feel strongly that B2P is not just an opportunity to provide critical infrastructure for a community in need, but also for our team to learn,” Mauro says. “My hope is that our team seizes the opportunity to open our eyes, minds and hearts, to understand the privileges we take for granted in the U.S. and to catch a glimpse of what really matters in a community with much less.”

Mauro and the B2P team depart for Rwanda on November 7. �۽�ֱ�� teammates, clients, trade partners and friends and family are invited to and to before, during and after the bridge build.

La Familia es Todo

Throughout his education, career and now effort to selflessly give back, Mauro has never lost sight of the importance of family. Mauricio and Valbi still live in Doral, and though the two-hour round trip is substantial, he makes the drive as often as possible to visit and honor the family and community that provided for him, raised him and set him up to make a difference in the world from Florida all the way to Rwanda.