VoyageMIA interviews Shownda Pagan, the CEO of Belafonte TACOLCY Center.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shownda Pagan.

Hi Shownda, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My life is a journey of opportunities, possibilities and experiences.

I started my career in the travel industry working for a corporation. At the time, NCL was one of the top 3 cruise lines in the industry. I worked my way up the ladder quickly from Reservations to Group Sales and the Sales Department, and dabbled in The Revenue Department. During my thirteen years, I learned from the industry’s greatest on the value of clients to a company, knowledge of product and service education of our land, air and sea services. I’ve worked with people from all fifty states with a world of knowledge to share. I loved my job!

All my life I have longed to help people. I did to some degree at the corporate level; but, it didn’t feel like I wasn’t making an impact or change. At the time, I was helping people create great memories; and while that is a good thing, that wasn’t enough for me. People were buying a moment of happiness, while there were people out there that couldn’t even buy a day of it. My question to myself was, “How can I truly make a difference?”.