My father recently retired from serving in the Ecuadorian Air Force for many years, and my mother is an entrepreneur who has always been involved in a variety of business ventures. Both my parents had to work to support our large family. This required a lot of effort and long working hours, so I grew up under the care of my older siblings.

As the youngest one of the bunch I was always tagging along and trying to keep up with my older siblings. My brothers taught me how to play soccer and marbles -- games at which I became very proficient. Also, as part of the Miranda family tradition, from early on I had to learn to play chess and ping-pong.

My siblings participated in competitions and brought home many medals and trophies, so as you can imagine I had a great responsibility on my shoulders. In spite of being such a large family, we manage to get together frequently and since we all live in Quito, we keep in contact with each other on a daily basis.

I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a challenging yet supportive environment, which has allowed me to become independent, creative, and open-minded.

I feel that our professional life starts when we actively start contributing and participating in the community, as well as when we consciously take charge of our lives and decide how we want to shape our future. Being the independent and active teenager that I was, at the age of 16, I decided to get involved in a local church and help with the childrens' programs. It was during this time that I was invited to participate in a summer camp for children with disabilities. This was the beginning of an eye opening experience, at Camp Hope Foundation. My dreams of helping needy people were very similar to their mission, which is to create awareness about disabilities as well as to give people with disabilities an opportunity to become productive contributors to society.

In 1988 I joined Camp Hope as a volunteer, I helped in various positions throughout the organization and within two years I became the director of their newly created Day Care Center. Nowadays I help them as part of the board of directors.

In 1996 a friend and supporter introduced Camp Hope to Global Volunteers, and that was the start of a positive and fruitful relationship with Camp Hope and a few years later with FUNDAC. I worked for several years as a liaison between Camp Hope and Global Volunteers and, in 2000, I became the on-site team leader.

As a side note, my relationship with FUNDAC also started in 2000. Their work is geared towards helping low-income children who attend the organization's day-care center because their mother's have to work to support their families. This has been a rewarding experience, as I have been able to use my early childhood education knowledge to help them create play stations and train the staff .

I graduated from 24 de Mayo High School in 1991 with a degree in Accounting, then attended Universidad Tecnologica Equinoccional (UTE) and obtained a degree in Early Childhood Education.