My take on the question for the "Express Yourself" portion of the application

1. IEU APPLICATION
Catalina León
Alonso
Describe one of your unique personality
traits which make you a valuable memeber
of the IEU community. Give us an example of
when this aspect of your personality helped
you through a situation

2. 18-year-old High School Student.
Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia
Passionate about politics, human rights,
international relations,
law, entrepreneurship and volunteer work.
SGS for future leader and founder,
member of the student council and
member of the yearbook committee.
Proud to be Latina and Colombian, love to
express my love for my country.
Love to read and engage in political or
non-political debates.
Who am I ?
Me during the
Day of
Independence of
Colombia, in
Paris

3. DETERMINATE
CREATIVE
LEADER
OUTGOING
CORAGEOUS
HELPFUL
IMAGINATIVE
PERSISTENT
ENCOURAGING
ADVENTUROUS
TALKATIVE
CONFIDENT
GENEROUS
COMPASSIONATE
Some of my most significant
personality traits.
I will be focusing on the ones in
yellow

4. Perseverance and
leadership
DEFINITIONS
Perseverance:
"1. The action or fact of persisting.
2. The quality or state of
being persistent "
Leadership:
"1. Capacity to lead
2.The act or an instance
of leading"
Taken from Merriam-
Webster Dictionary
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME?
In my own words, it means that I have
the capacity and ability to adapt to
difficult situations and achieve goals.
Also, I am a team player and usually
take on the role of leader, due to my
ability to organize workloads and
people, as for my commitment and
my wiliness to help all team members.
WHAT DOES IT
MEAN IN MY
COMMUNITY ?
In my environment I am
usually assigned roles of
class representative, spe
aker at assemblies and
more. My classmates
and teachers know that
they can rely on me for
different type of
activities.

5. Why would this
make me
valuable
member of IEU
community?
CLUBS
I know IEU has a lot of clubs
and ways of learning outside
the classroom, such as
debate club, eco club,
podcast and newspaper.
With my personality traits I
would engage and actively
participate as member of the
community. Taking in any
role with love and passion.
VOLUNTEER
I recognize that I have been
very privilege in life, and I am
always searching for ways to
give back to my community.
IEU has programs which I
would participate in, such as
volunteer work and SDG's
Club. My perseverance would
help us create and
achieve ambitious and
impactful projects.
FRIENDLY
I am aware that the IEU community is a very united community and
my ability to connect with people (thanks my leadership) would
make me valuable in the community as I would create bonds and
even help out other members and even solving misunderstandings
between members .

6. Last year (junior year) I decided to launch
myself for President of the Student
Council, in my school we call
the position Student's Advocate. I
prepared myself, had a strong campaign
and I gave meaningful speeches for my
school community. This election was very
important because the winner would be the
Advocate throughout senior year, and it
was sort of the only position you could
have to be a leader in school.
Example
The day of the election, I went in second place. Not only that in just the span of 2 or 3 weeks my confidence
received various punches. I didn't get casted at my last school musical production, with my "house" (like the
ones of Harry Potter) we got second place at a dancing competition and so many others. I went into the
summer feeling like everything I kept doing just wasn't good enough and that my last 13 years at school, that
were full of real hard work had went to waste.
me and my team for student's
advocate race

7. The 27 of September and after various talks with the headmaster
we organized a Climate Strike with all the school community,
even the cafeteria staff joined with beautiful signs.
Then January came along and so did the Australian Bushfires,
people were scared and started to feel the need to act. It was
then when with other students from High School we created SGS
For Future. Since then we have been very active, we have
had campaigns in school, sold bamboo toothbrushes, collected
funds for "Saving the Amazon" and so much more.
When Senior year started, I was still very sad about not being
recognized. Until one day that I decided that I was tired of being sad
and that I was going to use my voice.
During the school assembly there's an open forum section, I went up
and gave a speech talking about how I was tired of how we care
little to nothing about or planet. During that week the Amazon had
been fire, I knew that we had to do something.
Me and a friend giving a speech
openning the Climate Strike: "SGS
Unidos por el planeta"

8. HOW DID MY ABILITIES
CAME IN HANDY?
Since the beginning I have been a
leader, it is reason why I got
second place in the race for
Student's Advocate ,
people believe in what I could do
for our school community. Then
in senior year, I showed everyone
and myself that I don't need a
title to create change. During
and through the different
activities that I have sponsored
and created, huge organization
and leadership skills have been
need, to achieve the common
goals in the best way possible.
Me with my friends at the march
Cafeteria staff at the march
Me with kids from all of the city in COPinBogotá
The day we created SGS For Future
MOMENTS

9. Now my next goal is applying my
leadership and perseverance and
join them with a multicultural and
international points of view at IE
University.
References:
Merriam-Webster (2020). Retrieved from
https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/leadership
Merriam-Webster(2020). Retrieved from
https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/persistence
WHAT'S NEXT?