Stacey Julie Lopez is a first generation Mexican born in “the Valley” of Los Angeles, California. Although her parents both stopped attending school at a young age to work to support their families, Stacey considers herself extremely blessed to have grown up in a household where education was always considered a top priority. She earned her BA from the University of California Santa Cruz and currently attends UCLA Extension for her certificate in Project Management. In the future she hopes to obtain an MBA. During her time as an Anthropology major at UCSC, she participated in study abroad programs through UCEAP in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Accra, Ghana. She possesses fluency in both Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese and aspires to one day learn French as well (preferably by living in a francophone African or Caribbean country). Free-spirited, Stacey has a strong “anywhere but here mentality” and is always researching new adventures. She hopes that her pictures and stories will spark an interest in traveling to lesser-acknowledged destinations in South America and Africa. You can follow her story on her Instagram page: @steezy_b.