Congratulations to Alex Soto and Ariana Fales on Their Engagement

Southwestern Advantage Helps Form Relationships that Last a Lifetime

Southwestern Advantage fosters life-long friendships and the opportunity to build deep and meaningful relationships. Weekly Sunday meetings during the summer, accompanied by shared travels to events and conferences throughout the school year, unite interns. They collaborate in team-building exercises, training sessions, and business development, fostering growth throughout their Southwestern Advantage journeys. A number of these connections evolve into romantic relationships that culminate into successful marriages. One testament to this is the recent engagement announcement of Alex Soto and Ariana Fales.

Alex and Ariana’s Journey with Southwestern Advantage

Alex built a business with Southwestern Advantage for eight years. Since then, he has been a recruiter with ThinkingAhead and he just celebrated his ten-year anniversary with the Family of Companies. Ariana participated in the internship program for two years and works as Marketing Assistant with the Southwestern Advantage team.

The couple met when Alex ran Ariana’s informational session at the University of Central Florida. From there, Alex compared the evolution of their relationship like a bamboo shoot. He explained, “You tend to bamboo every day for three years without ever seeing it scratch the surface, only for it to one day shoot to the sky, sometimes growing 46 inches in a single day. That is what we were like. We laid a foundation based in friendship and mutual respect, patiently. Until one day: BOOM. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, we moved from FL to TN, started a family of two dogs, and now we are engaged.”

When they were asked about the moment that they both knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, neither could settle on a single moment. Ariana shared, “I can’t say there was a specific moment I knew, more so a collection of moments. I have never been able to be unapologetically myself in front of anyone before Alex. No matter what happened, or what he saw of me, I never felt judged and was comfortable. After several instances of this vulnerability, I knew that he was the one.”

The Values and Principles Instilled by Southwestern Advantage

Alex shared that the Southwestern Advantage program helped him develop resiliency in good times and bad. Ariana built on that by sharing that the company helped develop her patience and commitment, which has directly benefitted their relationship.

The well-known Southwestern quote: All you can do is all you can do, and all you can do is enough, has always stuck with Ariana. She has realized that in a relationship, doing your best is enough, when you are with the right person. Alex said that in a relationship the most valuable tool is listening; therefore, his favorite Southwestern concept is SUAL – Shut up and listen.

Alex shared that he admires the marriage of his former DSL, Amy and Ryan Groom because they have built an amazing life together, both personally and professionally. He shared, “While I’m sure their marriage is not without sacrifice; it feels like they’ve embraced a ‘both/and’ philosophy to life, instead of an ‘either/or’.”