You should travel the world and admire the differences between cultures. Then you will feel the desire to celebrate a place like Vienna, where all these cultures come together peacefully.

Andra had her path to success set in Romania, starting with her years at the Faculty of Modern Applied Languages in Sibiu. She loved studying French and English but had no attraction towards the German language. She was taken by surprise when, out of all the possibilities, she fell in love with an Austrian. They met the first time in Romania and, not more than one year later, they were set for a new life in Vienna. For Andra, this was exciting but at the same time very challenging, having left her family and friends back in Romania. The first year in Vienna was a struggle to learn the language, find her way in the new society she moved into and get a good job, suitable for her academic background and her passion. However, surrounded by a great Austrian group of friends, Andra adjusted very well to the new life. After building her way up through night shifts and a limited offer of fulfilling jobs in the service industry, Andra acquired the precious asset of speaking German. Then, the time had come to follow her passion, as she had been waiting for. Doors opened to better career opportunities, but a new series of challenges surprisingly arose. Andra started to fight prejudice against her cultural background at work, but she still found the motivation to perform in her corporate day-to-day tasks. Wanting to rethink her path, the turning point came during a visit in China. It set off to be one like many other international business trips she had taken during those 6 years. However, seeing first handed the life conditions for workers in Asia raised an alarm signal. After that, Andra reshaped her life, leaving behind the career as an export manager and looking for ways to bring more sustainability in today’s world. In 2013, she refocused on discovering social entrepreneurship and started an MBA in sustainable development. Her desire to ease the lives of immigrants and to remove the prejudice she had faced as well, led her to the idea of Younited Cultures: to show real stories of what successful migrants achieve in the Austrian society. Passionate about fashion and beauty, where she had acquired most knowledge in her career, she decided to use her new business as a model of sustainability for the luxury industry. Now Andra, married to Jamie, half Canadian-half Dutch, has a new life, taking the lessons and fears of the past to shape a more sustainable, beautiful and culturally inclusive future for society at large.