![\"Ailean](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Ailean-Arias-Gutie\u0301rrez-2025-2-story.jpeg\")
Ailean Arias Gutie\u0301rrez, a senior finance major, was drawn to UToledo because of the flexibility of its online courses and the option for a sustainability minor.<\/p><\/div>\n
Arias Guti\u00e9rrez and her family immigrated from Metepec, Mexico, to the United States in January 2022 for her father\u2019s temporary engineering assignment. She began at UToledo\u2019s John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation<\/a> as a finance major<\/a> with a minor in sustainability shortly after she moved.<\/p>\n She explained that UToledo was an easy choice because of the flexibility of online courses and the option for a sustainability minor.<\/p>\n “It was a challenge to leave Mexico where all my friends and my dream university were,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to start from scratch learning a new language and culture, but at The University of Toledo I found community in the International Student Association.”<\/p>\n Arias Guti\u00e9rrez served a one-year term as vice president internal of the association, overseeing 12 member organizations. She’s also involved in several other campus organizations: Women in Business Leadership, where she served a year term as treasurer; the Global Latin Student Union, where she served a year term as treasurer; the Klar Leadership Academy; and the Student Green Fund, where she served as an executive secretary for a semester and played a vital role in installing refillable water stations in Savage and Associates Business Complex.<\/p>\n Arias Guti\u00e9rrez also has been active with internships. Over the summer she completed an internship with the financial services firm Northwestern Mutual, and she currently serves as an intern with the UToledo Family Business Center, a position she\u2019s held since May.<\/p>\n “Working at the Family Business Center has taught me that you can learn so many things from building relationships with people,\u201d Arias Guti\u00e9rrez said. \u201cThe Family Business Center works with several business owners in the area, some of which are generational businesses. The information I’ve learned from family businesses resonates with me much deeper than reading the same information in a textbook.”<\/p>\n The Family Business Center is a member-based organization housed in Neff College of Business that helps local family businesses succeed by providing a safe venue for learning and focusing on issues that are unique to family businesses. Angie Jones, the center\u2019s director, said Arias Guti\u00e9rrez has been a tremendous asset.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s hardworking, thoughtful and consistently engaged,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThrough her involvement with the Family Business Center, she\u2019s had the opportunity to connect with many of our local family businesses, and she approaches each interaction with professionalism and genuine interest. It\u2019s no surprise that everyone she meets is impressed. Her ability to build relationships and learn from generational business leaders is already setting her up for a successful future.\u201d<\/p>\n Arias Guti\u00e9rrez said she is grateful for all that UToledo has done for her.<\/p>\n “I want to do many different things and explore the many paths of finance,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter graduation I plan to pursue personal finance and corporate finance. Down the road, I\u2019d love to be in corporate sustainability merging finance and sustainability to help change the world.”<\/p>\n