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The leader inside me
Becoming a leader for me has to do with learning from the peers and leaders we are in contact with and bearing these lessons, not as a treasure, but as a tool to become a change agent while shaping our own leadership style.
Each one of these experiences that allows us to learn from the people around us, that encourage and potentiate us, and lead us to connect with our purpose, ultimately add a color to the kaleidoscope of our existence. They enrich our point of view, broadening and deepening it, allowing us to address different realities from different perspectives. These perspectives nourish not only our paradigmatic vision, but also the society around us, benefiting it, and ultimately leading us to generate incredible changes.
Leadership is a constant construction in which we should sculpt our personal style by taking valuable lessons from the leaders that surround us, learning both from their strengths and weaknesses.
About me
I’m Victoria Márquez, a woman full of dreams, ambition, and vitality.
I was born in 2000 in Argentina, South America, and since I was a child I started feeling curious about world events and dynamics, trying to understand why terrible events, such as both World Wars, were even possible.
I am from a family of European grandparents immigrants who witnessed how events like these can transform the lives and realities of ordinary citizens, such as my grandparents were back then.
I started reading and becoming familiar with our world history, and my motivation to contribute to improving the world we live in and its different realities became more and more intense.
Therefore my vocation became clear from a very early age: I want to dedicate myself to the struggle for a more just and peaceful world and country, for the people who live in it today, and for generations to come.
This is why I started a degree in International Relations in 2019 in the Catholic University of Córdoba, the province where I come from.
My family supported me throughout my life, encouraging me to make my own decisions and follow my own path. My parents and my three older siblings were the first role models to whom I looked up.
From them I learned the importance of effort and hard work to achieve what I desired the most. They were also the ones who cultivated in me what is not taught in the classroom, such as the values that make me human and the capability to honor life.
Leadership
When thinking about leadership, the names of world transcendent leaders might come to our minds. However, I would rather highlight the role that leaders around me, in my background, play in my life.
When thinking about leadership, the names of world transcendent leaders might come to our minds. However, I would rather highlight the role that leaders around me, in my background, play in my life.
What type of leader do I feel identify with? How do I carve my own leadership style?
What type of leader do I feel identify with? How do I carve my own leadership style?
I always think about the experiences that have led me to connect with my potential, my vocation, and my passion the most. Experiences in which those who were surrounding me, and somehow leading, were the ones I learn the most from, and towards which I look up as role models.
I always think about the experiences that have led me to connect with my potential, my vocation, and my passion the most. Experiences in which those who were surrounding me, and somehow leading, were the ones I learn the most from, and towards which I look up as role models.
What I enjoy the most from these experiences is to feel that there is a place for me to grow and expand next to these people.
What I enjoy the most from these experiences is to feel that there is a place for me to grow and expand next to these people.
An experience that illustrates this can be when, at the end of 2021, I participated in a role change with my university counterparts in the National Congress of Argentina. In this opportunity, we were involved in the development of a bill regarding the regulation of the implementation of artificial intelligence. On this occasion, I was chosen by my classmates to dissert in the Congress about the importance of complying with Human Rights, privacy, security, and democracy in the use of these technologies.
In this experience, one of the best feelings was to have worked so well as a group with my partners and obtained such positive results, being able to learn from older students that were my mentors.
It was one of the most rewarding experiences working in a group because I was able to learn a lot from my peers while being in such a rich and inspiring environment. At the same time, I was able to contribute with my ideas and motivation.
This instance was extremely inspiring since it encouraged me to reflect upon my potential and the power to generate change that I have within my hands. This incentivized me to take action to collaborate from different perspectives to improve the conditions in which my society lives, with a great emphasis on future generations.
What has to do with leadership?
What has to do with leadership?
Since my experience next to leaders in my background, I believe that leadership has to do with inspiring and empowering others, with encouraging, enhancing, and boosting people’s potential and passions, in a way in which the leader leaves open a spectrum of possibilities and paths that their followers can follow at the time they correspond their own spirit, carving their own leadership style and potential.
Since my experience next to leaders in my background, I believe that leadership has to do with inspiring and empowering others, with encouraging, enhancing, and boosting people’s potential and passions, in a way in which the leader leaves open a spectrum of possibilities and paths that their followers can follow at the time they correspond their own spirit, carving their own leadership style and potential.
From my experience, many teachers throughout my life have presented themselves as inspiring leaders who have encouraged and incentivized me to follow my own path. This in itself has been connected to my passion for transmitting knowledge and helping others.
This is why I work as a teaching assistant in various subjects in my degree. A special experience was in the context of the Social Philosophy Chair at the end of 2021 when, together with the teaching team, we developed an UN-style debate model in which I was able to mentor a group of students and to boost and motivate them to connect with the content of the subject in a special way by putting it into practice.
How does it feel to be part of leadership experiences?
How does it feel to be part of leadership experiences?
I think, the most beautiful and fulfilling thing about this is that it leads you to believe in yourself, to take action, to be proactive and creative, which in the last term might take you to do big things, to generate changes, to leave your own mark, or even to achieve your biggest dreams.
I think, the most beautiful and fulfilling thing about this is that it leads you to believe in yourself, to take action, to be proactive and creative, which in the last term might take you to do big things, to generate changes, to leave your own mark, or even to achieve your biggest dreams.
In my case, leaders in my background took me to understand the importance of listening to my inner voice.
An interesting outcome of this can be seen when, in December 2021, I was selected as part of a scholarship to participate in the Friends of Fulbright program for a cultural and academic exchange in a university in the United States, Indiana University – Purdue University of Indianapolis, between January and March 2022 with 9 more Argentinians from all over the country.
On the one hand, the best lesson the application process left me is that when we listen to ourselves and make room for our dreams, there are huge instances in the world that are prepared to listen to us.
I think this is because achieving dreams or goals that have a purpose, beyond the personal fulfillment that they might generate, benefit and enrich the world and society we live in. Hence, it was an incentive to follow my dreams without any limits.
On the other hand, one of the reasons I was willing to participate in this exchange was because I wanted to immerse myself in the repertoire of richness that such an experience implies. Above all, being able to debate and exchange ideas capable of transforming the realities in which we live and generating change, since I am an open-minded person, always looking forward to learning new things and willing to receive and create new ideas.
And finally, I can say that this experience led me to learn a lot about leadership and to develop many new ideas about how I can help in the different spheres in which I work, both in my country and in the world, as a professional and as a world citizen, becoming an agent of change.
My horizons: regarding future experiences
I am a very active person and I am passionate about International Relations and Political Science.
From my future experiences, I hope that they will help me to open my mind and foster in me the creativity to create new ideas about how to help my society and the people around me.
In my country and diverse global realities, there is a lot of impacts to generate and I intend that each experience that is presented materializes as a source of tools that lead me to generate changes contributing to these realities.
I wish to be resilient in the face of the various challenges that may come my way and leave my own mark, fighting for peace and justice, to benefit today's society while always thinking about future generations, given that I am a fervent advocate of transgenerational justice.
I have a strong will to help bring about change both locally, nationally, and internationally, and I believe that I have the power, attitude, and willingness that will lead me to become an agent of change and achieve these changes, always incorporating the new lessons that each future experience holds for me.
Victoria Márquez
"[...] achieving dreams or goals that have a purpose, beyond the personal fulfillment that they might generate, benefit and enrich the world and society we live in."
Contact information
vicky.marquez.133@gmail.com - LinkedIn: victoriamarquez1
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