Article and Photo by Adam Fondren

Fabiola Boscan at her desk

“When I feel the ceiling on my head my mind starts thinking, okay, what is the next step? What is your next adventure?” Fabiola Boscan says this with bracelets jangling as she taps the top of her head with the palm of her hand. Boscan is the manager of the US Bank branch inside Smith’s Food and Drug in Rose Park, Utah. She is much more than just a woman from Venezuela who runs a small bank branch inside of a grocery store. She has become pillar for the community of Rose Park.

Boscan was born in the coastal town Maracaibo, Venezuela, just outside of the capital city of Caracas, where she attended university. Interestingly enough most students in the business administration field where guided towards work in the banking industry, but she was told that she would never work in banking because of her poor English, which is a mix of rasp and melody with the rolling “r” of Spanish thrown in for added flavor. Much like everything else in her life, struggling with English has never stopped her. She attended two different intensive English as a Second Language (ESL) courses to improve her spoken English. As Boscan says, “I’m going to be the best at one thing at that time,” whether the activity is speaking English or opening new bank accounts.

In Venezuela feminine beauty is a matter of national identity. In the last 10 years there have been three Miss Universe winners and one Miss World winner from Venezuela. Beauty has become a form of national currency. One in five women get plastic surgery. There are state run modeling academies. While Boscan considers herself outside of that world, she grew up being teased for being short chubby wearing glasses and having fairly bad acne. However, she has definitely taken many of the values from her country and made them her own. She is always clad in jewelry has immaculately manicured nails and six inch heels. She has perfect hair with highlights and is always fiddling with it. She clearly has a keen sense of current fashion. She came to the interview with a black blouse with perfectly matched black leggings and a high waist gold buckled belt. Her jewelry was loud and perfectly matched to her belt and stiletto heels.

Boscan is an extrovert with both her fashion and her technical knowledge, she is serious about what she does, who she serves and how she does it. She goes out of her way to create a sense of family for her customers. She is quite knowledgeable about banking, personal savings and credit management. But, she views being the manager of a branch as much more than giving accurate information. Her aim is to make their banking experience exceptional and an overtly pleasant and personal experience, a place where an underrepresented cross section of society can come and interact with a friendly knowledgeable ever present person. She is family to many and a friend to many more. She has wept with customers over the deaths of family members. She has become a guiding voice to many more. She views her role of not only helping people do banking but that of family and giving her customers a remarkable experience every single visit.

Boscan describes herself as a hungry person, someone always looking for the next phase. “I don’t want to be a branch manager for the rest of my life,” She says. Her mother always taught her to not be a quitter always pushing her to be a better person. She is feeling the ceiling right now and is eagerly looking for her next adventure.