By Leysha Esteves
Greetings!
My name is Leysha Esteves, and I’m a senior at Barnard College, studying neuroscience and behavior and human rights. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity this summer to intern with Shaping Her Earth. Through my work, I designed and executed SHE’s very first leadership summit. My outreach efforts enabled me to build community among SHE ambassadors across various universities and leading women of color in academia and industry.
Organizing the leadership summit has taught me so much about leadership, as well as myself. For starters, I’ve come to better understand how we all have the ability to create and put our ideas into practice. This is the case no matter how overwhelming the goal and the necessary work may seem.
Designing the leadership summit was a large project. Sheria and I intended to invite multiple speakers, bring together all SHE ambassadors, and understand the needs of developing university chapters. These goals required consistent communication months in advance of the summit. We had a vision of what we wanted the summit to feel like; it was now just a matter of making that vision a reality. Every small step, whether it was researching speakers to contact or taking notes in our meeting, ultimately brought SHE’s Leadership Summit to life. Overall, I’ve become more cognizant of my capacity to create and build something in an effort to support my communities. I’ll continue to exercise this capacity to create the changes I hope to see in the work I pursue.
We all have the ability to create and work towards building something meaningful for ourselves and for others. As members of SHE, you are already in the process of building something for your respective communities. No matter what you seek to initiate, know that you are capable of doing so. It just requires taking small steps and choosing to show up for yourself and others.
One piece of wisdom that stood out to me from the summit is that leadership does not necessarily equate to having the largest management position in an organization. Leadership is present in any role you take on. It’s present in the way we carry ourselves, in the way we represent our communities, and most importantly, in the way we make others feel. In any role we take on, whether it is in our families, in our school groups, or in our workspaces, we have the capacity to create a safe space for others, to treat each other (and ourselves) with kindness and respect, and to create a sense of belonging. This is a lesson I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life, in whatever space I enter. This wisdom has made me reflect on all of the jobs and commitments I’ve taken on in the past. People won’t necessarily remember my role, but they will remember how I made them feel.
I also connected this wisdom to advice my mom gave me earlier in the summer. She told me to never underestimate any job I’ve done, or any job I’ll take on in the future. In any job or career, you earn for yourself, whether that’s financially or through a skill set you obtain. You influence the communities you step into, and those communities will also influence you. It’s a wonderful thing to work towards your growth. Your initial job or roles in a community will enable you to speak for yourself and open doors to future opportunities.
Overall, I’m very grateful to have created a space for young women to see themselves as leaders. I’m grateful to be part of the SHE community and to work alongside my peers who are also building spaces where young women can see themselves as leaders. I’m confident I have a wonderful community of courageous women to confide in, to learn from, and to build with. I like to think of our collective effort in mentorship as a ripple effect. Consider the mentors in your own lives. Reflect on spaces they have empowered you to enter. Think about the reassurance they may have given you or the scaffold they created for you. Now, we are in positions of leadership to provide this to other young women. As mentors, we influence our mentees’ perception of what mentorship is, and their confidence in providing mentorship to other young women in the near future. Our influence as mentors transcends how we support our mentees. It empowers future generations of young leaders.
Signing off,
Leysha Esteves
