Smith Promoted to Financial Director
By Ty Terrasso | Friday, February 27, 2009 9:59 AM
Dijaira “Di” Smith believes herself to be a pretty lucky person, but luck had little to do with her recent promotion to Financial Director this month. Her willingness to go the extra mile has been instrumental in her professional success over the years.
She grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil with no desire to claim the United States as her place of residence. It would only be by a stroke of her signature luck that she would come to call Austin home.
Smith first came to the United States in 1995 in pursuit of her masters’ degree in Business Finance. For several years she worked within the private sector as a financial manager in Sao Paulo before making her decision to move to Austin. Di sought the upward mobility a Western education would provide her. The professional climate in Brazil at the time made female advancement in the workplace a difficult proposition. She planned to get her MBA in America and return to Brazil with the competitive edge necessary for a woman to compete in upper management.
Not a week after making her decision to uproot and move to America, Smith was on a plane headed north. Arriving in the Atlanta airport knowing only a few words of English she found herself far outside her comfort zone. The hustle and bustle of an American airport quickly overwhelmed her. Unable to navigate to her connecting flight she consequently wound up on standby. Not having any idea what “standby” meant she repeatedly tried to board the plane with the other passengers as they filed toward the gate. Repeatedly she was turned away. At the time it was a very upsetting situation that left Smith distressed and disheartened about her trip.
Looking back on the event she finds the entire ordeal quite comical and still laughs today whenever she hears the word “standby.”
Her luck changed quickly. While struggling to understand the instructions on a change machine a man approached her, inserted a five-dollar bill, and deposited the quarters into her hand. She quickly searched for money to repay the man but he just leaned in, told her, “That’s good luck” and walked away. From that point on her luck hasn’t faltered.
Her time in Austin began with two semesters of Texas’ Intensive English Program. She supplemented this program with a college caliber level of TV watching. It wasn’t long before she had mastered the language well enough to apply to MBA School at St. Edwards University.
The luck of Di Smith intervened in her life once again during her studies at St. Edwards. One night while unwinding at a local bar and grill she had the fortune of meeting “Mr. Wonderful.” Mr. Wonderful would go on to become the Di’s husband, father of her twins, and the reason she would decide to stay in America against her earlier intentions.
The decision not to return to Brazil and remain in America to begin a life with Mr. Wonderful started Di on her path with the UIL, a path that would ultimately lead to her appointment as Financial Director.
As Financial Director, Di now has the authority to make the final decisions regarding the optimization of resources across League offices. With her new position she hopes to carry the UIL unscathed through these rough economic times. It is her fundamental goal to ensure the job security of the entire office through careful planning and management of League resources.
She welcomes the increased burden and appreciates how busy she has become since taking the promotion. Before her promotion, Di was the financial manager at UIL for two years.
“I’m so grateful I have so much to do. If everything goes okay, and you get everything you want, your life is going to be very boring,” she said. “You need to have some challenges.”
There is no doubt Di will be faced with many challenges in the coming year but she will face them with the same tenacity that was so instrumental in her successful journey to America. Who knows, maybe some of her signature luck might just come in handy.