Sonia Gil (born 24 September 1981) is an entrepreneur and travel vlogger. She is the co-founder of the digital language learning platform

Fluenz Fluenz is a digital language learning platform developed by Fluenz Inc., a U.S. entrepreneurial company. The interactive content can be downloadable or accessed online on computers and mobile devices. The product range consists of programs to le ...

, where she leads the creation of all learning content. She is also the host and co-creator of ''Sonia's Travels'', which airs weekly on YouTube and Yahoo Screen. She also stars in the Ulive travel series ''Almost Free''. She is the winner of the 2012 People's Voice Webby Award for Best Web Personality, and the 2014 People's Voice Webby Award for Best "DIY-How to" online show for her ''How to Travel'' series. She was named the 4th most influential person in travel social media by travel blog Skift in May 2014.

Early life and education

Sonia Gil was born in Venezuela, in a multilingual family. She grew up in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

and

Boca Raton Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

, Florida, and attended Cornell University, where she studied plant genetics.

Career

During the first few years of college, Gil worked on an Internet start-up. The portal loquesea.com was online from 1997 to 2002, and was known as a very early social network for young people. The company "became the largest network of sites for youths in Latin America", and at some point had "19 sites running in 4 languages". After graduating, Gil went to the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

and worked with an NGO. Then she went to Paris and brushed up on her French. She traveled to China, where she encountered obstacles in the traditional way of learning the language. She realized that language couldn't be taught the same way all over the world. There needed to be a common ground between traditional instruction and modern presentation. According to Joshua Cohen, Gil started the vlog ''Sonia's Travels'' after she began traveling extensively for her work with Fluenz, which "make the costs of producing ''Sonia's Travels'' marginal instead of prohibitive". She partnered with Mariana Hellmund, an award-winning filmmaker with an extensive career, and together they developed the visual style that characterizes the web series. Another one of her projects, the non-profit Fluenz.org, distributes free English language programs for people in need. Gil also has her own video series, ''Almost Free'', on Scripps Network's Ulive.com. In the spring of 2016, she became a co-founder and investor at Nuverz.

References

External links

Official website

''Sonia's Travels''
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Gil, Sonia Venezuelan bloggers 1981 births Living people Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni Video bloggers Women video bloggers Webby Award winners Venezuelan women bloggers