Rosa Vieira Quintal ’08 was an ad agency model, a television variety show co-host and a business owner in Venezuela before she even arrived at SNHU.

When she was 17, she left her home state of Vargas for her grandmother’s home in Manchester to learn English. Next she enrolled in an information technology program at Manchester Community College. Being away from home was hard, and partway through she went back to Venezuela. There she became a model and co-host of a morning TV show.

Following the lead of her entrepreneurial parents, who own several businesses, Vieira Quintal opened a hair salon, then sold it and opened a cyber café. About a year later, she sold the cafe and returned to school in the U.S.

“I had a burning desire to finish what I started,” she said.

She earned her associate degree, then transferred into a bachelor’s program in IT at SNHU. She graduated summa cum laude and was named the Outstanding Student in her program. Now she is working on her Global M.B.A. She is thinking of a career in Web development and design.

“My dream is to have my own business. I come from that background, I have it embedded in me,” she said. “Hopefully I can do it anywhere around the world and in different languages – I speak English and Portuguese and Spanish, so I am more flexible.”