What surprising job have you had in the past?

I was a checkout girl at Zabar’s. I also worked at Supreme Jewelers, selling jewelry behind the counter. And I was a waitress at the Medici.

What would you want to be doing if not your current profession?

I would want to be acting and dancing—onstage, in the movies, on television, wherever. Thank you, Mrs. Ambrosini.

What do you hate that everyone else loves?

Video games.

What do you love that everyone else hates?

Anchovies.

What was the last book you finished?

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker.

What book changed your life?

The works of Ernest Hemingway, because they allowed me to become a writer. The other one that comes to mind is Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros, because I saw myself so reflected—a Mexican girl living between Chicago and Mexico.

What person, alive or dead, would you want to write your life story?

Isabel Allende or Ernest Hemingway.

What’s your least useful talent?

I make phenomenal popcorn. That’s an essential but kind of unimportant talent.

Tell us the best piece of advice you’ve received—or the worst.

Once when I was at U-High, I asked my dad, Raúl Hinojosa—a doctor and researcher at the University of Chicago—what was the best piece of advice people had given him. He said, “Don’t burn your bridges anywhere. Don’t burn bridges with employers, with people.” And then he said, “Never mess with the IRS. Always pay your taxes.” I adore that.

Another piece of advice I like came from somebody very powerful who managed a multimillion-dollar business. I asked what she did when things got rough. And she said, “Just keep breathing, the way you have to keep breathing when you’re scuba diving. You can never stop breathing.” I thought it was really silly, the most ridiculous advice. In the end, I think it turned out to be really important for me.

What advice would you give to a brand-new Maroon?

Believe in yourself. Trust your gut. Be you, 150 percent, no matter what anybody says.

What did you learn at Lab that still benefits you today?

The capacity to believe in myself as an intellectual. High school for me was a time to grow intellectually, because of everything I was learning and what was being demanded of me. That stays with me now.

What’s your most vivid Lab memory in two sentences or fewer?

Performing with the theater department every year I was in school.