CELLA: Uniting Leaders and Ideas in Latin America

The “Confederación Estudiantil de Liderazgo Latino Americano” (CELLA) took place in the University of Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico this past Sept.29-Oct 2nd. This conference envisioned a generation of young Latin-American leaders coming together to take action and responsibility to generate a new and positive change in the region.

“Latin culture tends to learn more from people than books.. this is why the region needs more conferences like this one” Monica Pugh in opening speech.

CELLA Inaguration

With high expectations, 85 young leaders from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Peru , Argentina and the USA gathered these days wishing to learn more about leadership and initiatives in which they could take part of.  I got the chance to participate from the conference and open my eyes to all the talent and amazing ideas people my age have around the region.

The conference was split into three days: The first was the realities of Latin America in which we learnt about coaching and working on our dreams; Banco compartamos- a microfinancing bank in Mexico; a World Café in which we all got to sit down in round tables and brainstorm the good and bad of our region and I also got to be a key note speaker where I spoke about turning challenges to opportunities through the storytelling of my own personal life story.

World Cafe sharing our thoughts

The second day was purely about leadership and the speakers and conferences ranged from the rainbow of leadership to inclusion of disabled in leadership and putting team leadership into action through a Lanzate “rope course” activity. This day I was able to learn how my personality influences my leadership style through a workshop lead by a Global Leadership Program Alumni, Ana Lucia Cavazos , I learned about the importance of including disabled people in our daily activities, work etc through a “UNIDOS” workshop in which we had a sense taken away and we had to impact someone’s life (I was “blind” and we gave free hugs to people around campus) and I put in practice my challenge zone and teamwork by climbing into the 20mt high discovery in the Lanzate Center and jumping of the giant swing.

I am Orange - I am fun, a dreamer, very active and energetic and love to be the center of attention and soul of the party

 

 

UNIDOS Workshop I was blind and my partners were mute and didnt have one arm

 

 

The Discovery in the Lanzate Center

The third day was focused into putting into action our ideas and finding collaboration and support from the people around us.  This day challenged my senses again with another UNIDOS activity in which we had to eat lunch blindfolded and with an UNIDOS staff member which at the end we found out was like he said “under our same circumstances” except that in his case he wasn’t blindfolded, he was really blind. Putting ourselves in the UNIDO´s staff shoes really touched me and to further inspire me the conference ended with the Ex-CEO of General Electric who gave us tips on what he would do if he was in our shoes… ironic… he wanted to be young again and be in our shoes again… because the reality was again proven to me this is the time and the age to take action, it will take the 4 “S” (Sudo, Sueños, Suerte y Sesos/ Sweat, Dreams, Luck and Brains) like the CEO of GE said… but this is the TIME.

Comida con Sentido - Eating with Senses

CELLA brought back the inspiration and explanation on why it is the time to make Hecha y Derecha a fact and a reality and on why my life has taken all this 360° turns landing on where I am right now… living 3 days with inspiring people and sharing thoughts with like-minded individuals made me re-gained the fuel to start a movement for women development… and this is why I would like to close this blog by sharing a video the CEO of General Electric shared with … let´s check out why leadership is not only about the one that has the idea but about the one that thinks this idea is worth following… thank you to all the followers of Hecha y Derecha you will be the reason on why this idea succeeds.

 

End of Conference- Everyone drew and wrote what they got out of CELLA

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