MY STORY

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What I remember most about my dad is how hard he pushed me. “You have a responsibility to make the world a better place, and your 100% is not enough,” he’d say. I didn’t fully get it back then; I was just a girl in a remote Chilean town, living under a dictatorship. The “world,” for me, was narrow, bordered by fear and injustice.

I became a journalist to speak out and a political scientist to understand the systems shaping our lives. Eventually, I wanted to see past the edges of that small map. When I was accepted to Georgetown, I knew it was the opportunity of a lifetime, but it was completely out of my financial reach. I had no savings, so I managed to get a loan, but it covered only one semester. I didn’t know what to do. That’s when the opportunity opened: Georgetown would award me full tuition if I was among the top three students each semester. I packed my bags knowing I would have to earn it, ready to give everything I had.

Coming to the United States was challenging in many ways: being far from family and friends, building a life in another language, and studying harder than ever to win and then keep the scholarship every semester. But that decision also opened the world for me, literally. Washington, D.C. allowed me to meet people from every corner of the globe, and that widened not only my opportunities but also my sense of possibility.

As a result, over the following 20 years, I have advised presidents, led government communications, managed nonprofits, run public affairs in the private sector, and worked at international organizations, think tanks, and in media.

I have been in the rooms where strategy is made, on the ground where change is fought for, and in the noise of public debate.

Working independently made clear that what I bring to the table is the ability to integrate all those experiences. Having worked across those sectors, I bring together communications, public affairs, and political strategy, and that blend is highly effective in helping organizations, leaders, and startups shape ideas, build influence, and ultimately move people.

That’s what Areté actually means: it’s excellence —the kind that is only possible when you bring together every dimension of what you can be, when you reach your full potential.

I’m sure my dad never heard the word Areté, but I think that’s exactly what he meant. And if today I can help others reach their fullest potential and go beyond their 100%, I believe we all stand to make the world a better place.