Jorge was born in Durango, Mexico and didn’t arrive in the United States until 2010, when he moved to Delta, Colorado as a senior in high school. He wasted no time getting to work and quickly immersed himself to learn the English language, which he mastered in no time at all. Hungry to continue his education, Jorge moved again-this time to Grand Junction, where he enrolled at Colorado Mesa University. The act of progressing from learning a new language from scratch to graduating college at an English-speaking university would be quite a feat in its own right, but Jorge had even more fire in him than that. He graduated from CMU in 2016 with not one, but two degrees - Public Accounting and Finance - and did so with honors.

There are several CPAs and finance industry professionals in our network, and those of you who have taken the CPA exam know that it is notorious for its difficulty. We won’t tell your clients, but it isn’t exactly a secret that many CPAs require multiple attempts to pass the licensure exam. Jorge, however, passed the CPA exam on his first attempt and with flying colors - and he did so in his second language.

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Jorge now works for the office of Mark Ashman (CPA, P.C.) as a tax manager.

Although Jorge is someone who has wholeheartedly embraced his professional role, he is also someone who has demonstrated a strong belief in the value of service. Wanting to give back, Jorge joined the Western Colorado Latino Chamber of Commerce (WCLCC) as a volunteer director in 2016 and has served as the WCLCC President since 2017. He is also a Council Member for the Minority Business Office Advisory Council for the State of Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

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President Theodore Roosevelt once remarked that “in the long run, the success or failure of our nation will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in those great occasional moments which call for the heroic virtues.” Our YP of the year was selected in no small part because he so fully personifies this ethos.

Jorge is someone who has made the most of every opportunity given to him and made opportunity itself where there was none to be found. He has made no excuses and grabbed life by the horns to accomplish everything he has set his will upon. He represents the best of what our community has to offer and embodies what it means to be a young professional. Congratulations, Jorge Pantoja!