Sonia Sroka finds herself in a unique and evolving role in the tech landscape. The mom of two is Facebook's global head of multicultural communications.
In today's day and age, that role comes with tremendous responsibilities. Sonia found herself juggling the fast-evolving world throughout 2020 while working from home, as so many of us did. She balanced her important and impactful work with raising her two young sons with her husband in Silicon Valley.
Sonia chatted with LittleThings about her experience as a parent over the last year. She also opened up about what it's like being one of Facebook’s top Latina voices — and Facebook's effort to bring facts about the COVID-19 vaccination to Latinos across the country.
Sonia Sroka is one of the senior-most Latina figures at Facebook. Sonia works as the global head of multicultural communications. Her work has been increasingly important in navigating the complicated landscape of the last year. While taking on this sizable task, Sonia was working from her Silicon Valley home, where she lives with her husband and two young sons.
When the change to working from home happened in 2020, Sonia found herself trying to keep up with new information, a feeling familiar to most.
"I remember that time being very uncertain for all of us," she told LittleThings.
"We were learning more about the pandemic, and things seemed to be evolving daily. We are very lucky at Facebook to have a fast-moving and adaptable culture. I do a lot of media interviews, so I quickly got together a home studio where I could still connect via video conference with the media.
"Of course, having the boys home from school was challenging, but kids are so quick to adapt. They missed their friends and the normalcy of life, but at the same time, it was a challenge we had to rise up to meet, and I'm proud of my boys for how they handled everything."
Sonia was grateful that her job gave her the flexibility to both work and be a hands-on parent. But doing both left her feeling exhausted at times, and it's a fine line to walk when so much else around you is stressful.
"Working from home has its benefits. I've been able to spend more time with my family and really be present in their lives day to day. So for that, I'm very grateful," she acknowledged.
"But I think for a lot of working moms, it's hard to decide when the day ends because you're in your home. You can have dinner and go right back to work without having to drive anywhere."
Sonia had to learn to draw boundaries and challenge herself and others to respect them.
"I've implemented as much structure as I can. I get ready in the morning, am dressed for my Zoom meetings or media interviews, have my work day, and then I log off when it's time for dinner," she said.
"Of course, sometimes you have to check in when things are moving at a quick pace, but it’s important to have a solid line between work life and home life. Otherwise, it's easy to get burnt out."
Sonia grew up in a family that centered gratitude. It's something she's passing on to her own family, and it's been crucial to getting through this time.
"My family has always been very gratitude-focused. I left El Salvador when I was a young teenager because of the civil war there, and so I've always known how lucky I was to have the opportunity to come here and start a new life," she explained.
"So with my kids, I'm quick to point out how lucky we are for what we have. So many people have lost loved ones or have had health challenges in this pandemic. We have created lots of special moments despite things like lockdowns. I think many people say that the pandemic brought them closer together. So counting my blessings has helped me cope."
Staying active has also been important to Sonia during this time. She offers some advice for moms who are also juggling a lot right now based on what's been helping her.
"Move your body," she urged.
"Whether it's a simple walk or an online workout, I like to start my day with some movement. We take a stroll to a nearby park, nothing too strenuous, just to get some sunlight and wake up my brain. Marking the beginning of my day helps set the tone and break up my schedule into sections that don't feel overwhelming."
Sonia recommends not letting work take over, no matter how big your responsibilities or ambitions.
"It's easy to want to keep working into the night when the tea kettle is just steps away. But it's important to keep the same boundaries as when you’re in the office," she advised.
"Power down the computer at a reasonable hour so you have time to connect with family, friends, and hobbies."
A lot of people have slowed down on reaching out to others and making virtual plans. Sonia's made an effort to bring it back in her own circles and thinks others should do the same.
"Especially at the beginning of the pandemic with lockdown, it was easy to get into a rut of being at home with no connection to the outside world," she shared.
"I established weekly calls with friends and family on Facebook Messenger where we could eat dinner or even play a game together. It has helped keep us united even as we are apart."
Your best efforts can still leave you feeling less than, at times. Sonia says moms should embrace and work through the feelings, rather than shrugging them off.
"The pandemic has changed a lot for many of us," she said.
"It's OK to feel stressed or overwhelmed. Finding outlets to diminish stress, whether it's meditation or a hobby you enjoy, is a necessity for every working mom."
Another important part of Sonia's life during this time has been getting factual information out to the masses. She knows many are overwhelmed by how many different things are out there.
"The pandemic and now the vaccine roll-out have sparked lots of sources of information. Make sure you're getting the authoritative and truthful information by sticking to sites like Facebook's COVID-19 hub that sources verified information about COVID-19 and the vaccines from government agencies — local, regional, and federal," she said.
"It will keep you informed and focused on next steps as we hopefully move forward toward a renewed sense of normalcy."
The work of getting the right information to the Latino community is particularly important to Sonia.
"Studies have shown that Latinos are lagging behind in vaccination rates despite being 1.7 times more likely to contract COVID-19 than their non-Hispanic white counterparts, as well as 4.1 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 and 2.8 times more likely to die from COVID-19," Sonia noted.
"Platforms like Facebook have a unique opportunity to play a positive role in this pandemic — using our scale to reach people, we’re doing our part to help people get credible information, get vaccinated, and come back together safely. Our end goal of the COVID-19 response work is to increase vaccine confidence. We want to support our partners to disseminate accurate and credible health information so people can make informed choices related to their health and the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine."
"In March, we launched a series of campaigns in order to communicate important information related to vaccine rollouts across our family of apps," she continued.
"We launched a new vaccine tool that helps people find out where and when they can get vaccinated. We've partnered with Boston Children’s Hospital to help people identify places nearby to get the vaccine. The locations in this tool are provided by VaccineFinder and include hours of operation, contact info, and links to make an appointment.
"We also launched the COVID-19 Information Center to Instagram all around the world to help people discover the latest information about the virus from local health ministries and the World Health Organization. We also released new stickers on Instagram Stories, so people can inspire others to get vaccinated when it becomes available to them."
"We're continuing to expand our efforts to address COVID-19 vaccine misinformation by adding labels to Facebook and Instagram posts that discuss the vaccines. These labels include credible information about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines from the World Health Organization," Sonia said.
"We're also rolling out labels about COVID-19 vaccines more generally that point people to the COVID-19 Information Center globally, and plan to add additional targeted labels about COVID-19 so people have the context they need to make informed decisions about what to share."
Sonia shared her message for Latinx people considering getting vaccinated. "Our community has really stepped up to help each other during COVID-19 — especially women. To give you an idea of the impact they have on COVID-19 information, women created 2.7 times more COVID groups compared to men, with 4 times more members!" she explained.
"Studies are now showing that a contributing factor to Hispanics not getting vaccinated is not distrust but lack of vaccination hubs and longer distances to vaccination centers from their homes. A few Latinas in Maryland started the Las Caza Vacuna Facebook Group that works to empower people to make COVID-19 vaccine appointments by pulling together all their learnings in a comprehensive spreadsheet. The all-volunteer team even helped Montgomery County, Maryland, officials proofread and correct some confusing Spanish translation errors on the county's COVID-19 website."
"Dr. Bertha Hidalgo, an Instagrammer/genetic epidemiologist, saw the lack of Spanish-language content available for the Latinx community and decided to use Instagram as a way to deliver COVID-19 and other science/health info in an approachable, easily understood manner," Sonia noted.
"Many people, together with Facebook, are working so that our community has trustworthy information about the safety of the vaccines. My hope is that everyone can get vaccinated so that we can sooner be back together in person, enjoying each other's company safely."
