Alumnus Francisco Berrios chases the wins in business

How does a Puerto Rican boy overcome limited opportunities and become the vice president of client development at a financial organization with more than 10,000 employees? Was it his passion for football (specifically, winning at football) that kept him in the game? His love of learning? Or the unwavering support of others? University of Phoenix alumnus Francisco Berrios (BSB/MKT, 2011; MBA/TM, 2015) is here to explain. 

Berrios was born and raised on the small island of Puerto Rico where, as he tells it, the culture is dominated more by who you know than what you know.

“I grew up with not a lot of opportunity,” Berrios says. “So, I’ve always had this innate drive of working hard to earn things. I chase earned wins. I don’t chase things that are easy slam dunks.”

His work ethic was one of the first characteristics Berrios’ wife, Stephanie, noticed about him. “When I met Cisco, he was already balancing full-time work with progress toward his bachelor’s degree. His dedication, discipline and commitment to long-term goals immediately stood out to me. I was inspired by his drive to invest in his future,” she says.

Initially, Berrios centered his future on football. He loved the sport, playing the game from ages 8 to 18 and then coaching high school football from the ages of 18 to 26.

“Football was a pivotal part of my life and helped me through high school,” he says.

The competitive nature of sports no doubt complemented and cultivated Berrios’ natural inclination to work hard for his achievements, whether on or off the field. Berrios, you see, also loves learning and was driven in the classroom such that he skipped sixth grade, entered high school on an academic scholarship and graduated by age 16.

He thought to combine his love of sports and career and enrolled at a university in Puerto Rico to study telecommunications. His aspiration? To become a sports broadcaster. 

Berrios soon realized the system in Puerto Rico was not straightforward. “There’s a lot of nepotism in it,” he says. He wanted to find a way forward sooner than it would take to break into broadcasting.

Berrios quit pursuing a telecommunications degree and started working retail jobs. When he was 19, however, his grandfather received a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, which is a cancer of plasma cells. That changed everything for Berrios, who turned it into motivation to give back. He started volunteering in the community and aligned with a friend who was building a patient-services call center for a cancer organization.

His friend had a limited budget, so Berrios decided to help free of charge. His goodwill and good work did not go unrewarded. For starters, he learned key technical skills like network drops and how to build servers. The vice president of patient services noticed his work and asked Berrios if he would be interested in joining full time as a patient services coordinator. Berrios accepted and served with the organization for the next four years.

“It was a very humbling experience, working with cancer patients every day with direct financial assistance [and] resource assistance and just helping support patients as they got their diagnoses,” says Berrios.

Meanwhile, his grandfather’s cancer went into remission. And Berrios’ work at the cancer organization brought unexpected benefits. The company required Berrios to complete his bachelor’s degree, so he finally had the reason and the pathway to go back to school. 

At the time, a colleague of Berrios was pursuing her MBA from University of Phoenix and encouraged Berrios to try it. “It’s not like you have to go in five days a week. You can do this at night. You can do this after hours,” Berrios recalls her telling him.

He thought the flexibility sounded feasible and began exploring degree programs. “I pursued business with a concentration in marketing because it seemed to be the function that covered the most areas,” he says.

His assumptions were verified quickly. As he settled into his program, he found that what he was learning was applicable to his work and goals. “It worked for me very well because of the structure, and the rubrics were very specific in terms of what you had to accomplish. I remember taking that first intro class and getting some really good feedback. It clicked.”

During that time, Berrios picked up a second retail job, but he ultimately felt like he was going nowhere on the nonprofit or retail side. So, he quit both jobs and decided to upskill with a Master of Business Administration at University of Phoenix. Since he was paying out of pocket, he took a call-center job with the company that would become his current employer: Synchrony.

“I fell in love with this amazing culture,” he says of his employer. “Even on this small island where everybody knows each other, this kind of beacon of fairness really attracted me. As an employee, you always want to look for fairness.”

Berrios worked for three years as a bilingual customer service representative while gaining his MBA. It wasn’t easy — for him or his wife. 

On the flipside, she saw his confidence soar once he completed his MBA.

“I observed a noticeable growth in his confidence and professional presence, particularly in his willingness to pursue leadership opportunities and advancement within his organization,” Stephanie says.

A key example was completing Synchrony’s employee development program, which Berrios did before being promoted to a manager role in customer service that came with a move to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Berrios loved Charlotte but noticed very little Hispanic involvement. He thus founded the Hispanic Network, an employee resource group that grew from five to 150 members by the second year. Today, he says, it boasts several hundred members.

His initiative and leadership with the group exposed him to opportunities that led to his promotion to run the bilingual call center in Altamonte Springs, Florida. There, he really saw his schooling come into play.

“When I finished my MBA and went into meetings where they were talking about profit-and-loss statements and the financial world and how the bank operates … I already understood that,” says Berrios.

One of the things he most appreciates about Synchrony is how it continually develops its employees. “At every stage in my career, I have been in a development program that Synchrony has created for the level of role that I fell in.”

That has included two-day, in-depth leadership development programs with West Point generals as well as support from leaders and mentors who encourage Berrios to apply for more senior-level roles. So far, he has held three VP titles across varying lines of the business.

Today, Berrios has his eye on a senior vice president role that would expand his client initiatives to a larger scale.

Until then, Berrios is going to keep chasing those satisfying wins. “I want to earn it,” he says. “The most satisfying wins are the wins you earn.”

Explore more opportunities to learn about the UOPX family! Find out if your employer is one of the more than 1,000 organizations University of Phoenix works with to offer education benefits.

Already an alum? Then meet more Phoenixes like Cisco. Make connections, build relationships and be part of a growing community when you join a University of Phoenix alumni chapter!

If you want to get to know more of our Phoenixes, check out their stories on the blog and on the podcast.