IB Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Carlos Valdez

Written by Rachel Meng

IB Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Valdez

Hello IB Students,

This semester we are going to have double-spotlight, combining a faculty and a monthly-themed character strength. In honor of September’s Labor Day, this month’s strength spotlight is perseverance. Professor Carlos Valdez, who is the Lead Faculty for the contemporary selling course in the Marketing Department, is our faculty spotlight.

What does perseverance mean to you?

Don’t give up! Most valuable things in life require hard work and dedication, and of course, we are going to find obstacles along the way to test our characters, but perseverance is what makes the difference. Instead of giving in, we need to think about how we can continue to achieve our goal. Everyone faces obstacles. The difference is to push through and persevere to continue working toward our dreams and goals.

Please share an experience when you applied this strength.

All the time. When I try new things in my courses and develop new ways of learning, perseverance is the key to success. Things don’t work perfectly the first time, but keep learning from mistakes and improving new strategies. We have developed two case studies for the main project in my contemporary selling class; a coffee shop case and a food struck case. Students encounter obstacles while solving these cases, but they persevere to find the best solution. Another example is having a panel of IB Alumni, AKA the IB shark panel, to evaluate the final projects every semester. Finally, we have guest speakers who raise challenges for students during presentations, and students role-play in these challenges.

What is your advice for UCF students about this strength?

Our passionate goals in life are never going to be easy, so we should understand that adversity, problems, challenges are normal. If we want to succeed in anything, the secret is perseverance. We should learn from our mistakes, develop our creativity to look for alternative ways to solve any problem and persist until we achieve our objectives.

What does perseverance mean to you? Whatever you might be going through, the end of the tunnel is near. Keep at it one day at a time.

“Never reject an idea, dream, or goal because it will be hard work. Success rarely comes without it.”

– Bob Proctor

Go IB!