At only 19 years of age, this ambitious young man is already working as a legislative advisor in the Puerto Rican Senate. Being the youngest Senate employee right now is a big deal — and a lot of responsibility! Around campus, he is just the friendly guy from the School of Communications… but he is more than that! Read on to meet the other side of Josué Jiménez!
Name: Josué JiménezAge: 19Hometown: Orocovis
Major: Advertising and Public Relations, with a minor in Political ScienceHobbies: Cooking and painting
Claim to Fame: Josué is currently the youngest legislative advisor in the Senate.
HCUPR: Tell us a little bit about yourself.Josué: First of all, I consider myself to be a gentleman — I enjoy old-school things like giving up my chair to a lady and opening car doors for her. I love Christmas, animals, staying in shape, cooking… The list keeps going. Also I’m very friendly. I like to keep my priorities straight.
HCUPR: How did you start as a legislative advisor?Josué: Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve always liked politics. When I first moved to Río Piedras I wanted to get a job at the Capitol and thought that since I had relative that worked there I would get some sort of special treatment — boy, was I wrong! Nobody cared that I was there. So I began bringing coffee to the office every single morning. After a few months, I scored a summer internship. Afterwards, I was offered a position as a legislative advisor. That was the best moment! I felt really proud of myself because I started from the bottom, without any connections or special treatment. It was all because of my hard work. The rest has been really exciting, I have learned a lot about current issues in Puerto Rico. The best part of my job is that I work with and meet exgovernors, who are really relevant people in Puerto Rico.
HCUPR: What is the most difficult part of your job?Josué: We have a very tight budget and the resources are limited. Sometimes people call my office telling me that they don’t have money for utilities or food, and that breaks my heart. I want to help everybody I can, but like I said, resources are limited. I recall this one time a mother called saying that her child needed open-heart surgery and didn’t have the money— and that was really hard for me. It’s definitely the hardest part of my work.
HCUPR: What would you do if you could make a project with your community?Josué: A while ago, I worked on a project for special-need kids. Some might think that Puerto Rico has bigger problems to focus on right now, and that special-needs kids may not be a priority — but that doesn’t mean it’s a less important issue. I want to bring the best services and quality programs to help these kids develop better skills in a comfortable, accepting environment. Kids are the future, and they need better education and better services from the government.
HCUPR: Where do you see yourself after graduation?Josué: My first step after graduation would be start grad school in Politics Management at George Washington University, or maybe law school here in the UPR Río Piedras. Eventually I’d like to work as a lawyer and help people.
HCUPR: What’s something not many people know about you?Josué: I’m a painter. I don’t say this often because it’s something personal, so just a few people know. I love to paint. In fact, my paintings have even been shown in exhibitions. I’m also a little bit of a chef, and I love wine.
P.S. This charming gentleman told us that if any of our beautiful readers wants to know get to know him more, that he’d be happy to invite her to a cup of coffee!