From a young age, I’ve been put in a position of leadership. By seven I was the oldest of four children. Both of my parents were, and still are to this day, lead researchers in different fields related to agriculture, and worked nine to five. As a result, my siblings and I had a lot of time by ourselves, and I was cast as a sort of “stand-in” caregiver at those times. I’m not saying I ever had to raise my brothers and sister, but at some point I had the realization that I’d spent more time in their lives with them than my parents had, and that embedded a grave sense of responsibility in me. To set the right example, to be there for them when they needed me, and to teach them from my own experiences have been priorities for me for longer than I can remember.

Another value that is deeply rooted in my persona that my parents have taught me is independence. Having spent time on my own growing up aside, my mother and father have always gone out of their way to create situations where we could learn to be independent and resourceful. When I was fourteen years old I had the amazing opportunity of traveling to Europe to visit my grandmother on my own. Going through a handful of airports on your own might not seem like a great feat, but it was a life-changing experience for me. It only reinforced that sense of independence because I discovered a whole new world of opportunity. From that young age, I realized that I was capable of doing big things by myself and that I could go anywhere I wanted if I put my mind to it. Since then, I’ve done solo travel many times and each time has been life altering in its own way. Having the opportunity to see the world has opened my mind to see the bigger picture and to approach one problem from many different perspectives, and I have my parents to thank for these opportunities.

The ability to make hard decisions is another quality that I have to attribute to my family. It isn’t exactly something they have taught me, but something I’ve learned because of them. Back in 2019 I had moved to another city and started my degree in Systems Engineering and was halfway through freshman year when my parents broke the news that they had decided to move to New Zealand for at least two years. Whether or not I went with them was my decision to make. I couldn’t make that decision for a long time. Neither of the options had pros that outweighed the cons, but nevertheless I finally opted to take the risk and stay in Argentina on my own. I’d already started building a life for myself and I realized that, in the long run, it would be the choice that got me where I wanted to be in the future. This also reinforced the independence I mentioned previously.

2021 was a hard year. My mother’s sickness made me take on more responsibility in my family, reinforcing my sense of duty and responsibility towards them, even if it was a tradeoff between that and my beloved independence. Suddenly, I was much more than an older sister; my role grew into something greater in the face of potentially losing our mother. I was happy to be able to help carry the load but internally, I was struggling with the fact that I might not get to do everything I wanted in life, the way I intended to. Eventually, I accepted this and decided it wasn’t going to be easy, but if I set my mind to it I could still manage to accomplish everything I ever wanted.

Thankfully, my mother was recently declared to be in remission. This changed things for me yet again. I could make plans again and kind of “unpause” my life. I was a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities, but when the Friends of Fulbright scholarship possibility came up, it wasn't a hard call to make. I didn’t think I’d get selected, and even now that I am writing this from Indiana, USA, I can’t figure out what exactly sets me apart from the other 800 applicants. I feel that most people suffer from imposter syndrome, and after some thought, I don’t believe it’s necessarily a bad thing to question one's place in the world and capabilities from now and then. It allows you to realize what you’ve done correctly, how you could’ve done a better job, and reflect on what you can do in the future to assert yourself in the workplace, in your friend group, or in society in general.

These traits I’ve been building on over the years might be considered as potential traits for a leader to have. I’m in no way saying I’m a leader, but I might be on the path to becoming one. In the next decade, my focus is to finish my degree in Systems Engineering and begin working in software development. Hopefully, along the way, I may inspire other women and girls to pursue a career in this field, which is partly the reason why I went into it. I believe that women can provide a much-needed perspective and a different approach to problem-solving which could lead to many interesting developments, and if I can make at least one girl feel less intimidated by a career in STEM, I will feel extremely accomplished.