FIYou profile: Mercedes Garces


Name: Mercedes Garces

Hometown: Ecuador

Job Title/Department: Custodial worker in Primera Casa

Campus: University Park

In a nutshell: My job is to help keep our university clean.

Number of years at FIU: I have been working at University Park campus for six years – the last two of those years as an employee of FIU.

What do you enjoy most about your job? I love talking to everyone on the fifth floor of PC as I clean. FIU has become my extended family. I feel at home here.

What do you think faculty/staff/students should know about your department? I wish people would take a moment and realize how hard we work. Bathrooms can be a nightmare if people aren’t considerate. Also, there has been a recent spike in graffiti that makes things more difficult.

Where is your favorite spot on campus? Why? For lunch, my friends and I like to go to the picnic tables around the Graham Center fountain. I also love to go the U.S. Century Bank Arena to watch FIU basketball games.

If there’s one thing you wish everyone knew about FIU, what would it be? I wish everyone knew that attending this university is an enormous opportunity. Doors open in this community when you say that you graduated from FIU.

Family snapshot: I have three beautiful kids – Juan Garces, 24, who is studying criminal justice at Brown Mackie College; Christian Garces, 18, who will be attending FIU in the fall; and Karla Garces, 23, who is studying to be a paralegal at Miami-Dade Community College and is pregnant with her first child. In a few short months, I will be a grandmother! 

Word that best describes you: Joyful

First paying job: I worked as a sales telemarketer for Caballero Woodland Cemetery. It was never boring cold-calling people and asking them if they would like to buy a burial plot for themselves or their loved ones.

Favorite TV show: “The New Detectives” on the Discovery Channel.

Your proudest accomplishment: I am most proud of the relationship I have with my parents. They sacrificed everything for us kids and still today they are always supporting us no matter what we do. José Joaquín de Olmedo was my father’s favorite Ecuadorian patriate and poet. He always said if we followed Olmedo’s poem,”Alphabet of Advice,” we would have an answer to any problem we encountered. Olmedo’s sage advice and the strong faith my parents instilled in me have helped me through the most difficult times of my life. I am proud to have passed this down to my children.

What do you do when you’re not working at FIU? When I’m not spending time with my kids, I’m either practicing my English or studying the Bible.

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