People are the reason for everything

Maria Isabel Dias’ sweetness and compassionate gaze are so infectious that it makes us feel as if we are talking to a friend of years. Born and raised in São Paulo, the 19-year-old completed high school at UWC SEA and is preparing to study neuroscience in the United States. Besides this great passion, she also has an appreciation for STEM and currently works as Alumni Coordinator for Tech and Data at LALA.

From an early age, Maria Isabel dabbled in subjects that seemed “beyond her age,” such as attending Stanford classes and studying English, but the truth is that they served as an outlet to remind her that the world is bigger than she could imagine and let her curiosity blossom.

The path taken to become aware of one’s own value is admirable and is part of the humanity we all have: the uncertainty of whether our story deserves to be told. Valuing it is essential to finding our place and value in the world, resignifying and naming traumatic experiences. Throughout her childhood, she and her mother suffered domestic violence, leaving wounds that affected her deeply. It was only through the recognition and naming of these traumas that she could strengthen herself and engage with the feminist movement, which is very important for who she is today.

Today, she follows the mantra of living one day at a time and meaning each one with purpose, waking up with the knowledge that she loves and is loved back. She also enjoys activities that hold her deeply, like writing, building meaningful relationships with people, and taking long walks. She loves science and technology and believes in the exponential power of these tools for positive social impact. Although these are great passions, not everything is for the best, and it reminds us that painful processes are part of the journey. “It’s just part of the journey that will lead me to one day be able to do things that will affect people in a very meaningful way.

She has been engaged in several political and scientific organizations, has done scientific initiation, and was a speaker at Google’s Mind the Gap. She led financial aid fundraising groups for Casa da Amizade and From Houses to Homes during high school and organized TEDxSEADover with the theme “Empower.”

The magic of LALA is able to connect people in unexpected ways and make things happen exactly the way they need to happen. It was no different with this young woman, who faced several setbacks that prevented her from going to the bootcamp, until she found people from the organization that helped her solve all the problems. So she was able to participate in BLB 7 in São Paulo. She says that at LALA, she felt empowered to be any version of herself, knowing her power to be the change she wants to see in the world, and recognized the importance of humanized relationships, leaving as a legacy her story and learning from everyone else’s as well. Bringing out the essence of LALA and recognizing that “people are the reason for everything”.

She has been involved in several activities within the ecosystem, being a mentor in the fundraising mentorship program, a mentee in the mentorship program, and a coach in VLB 2. She is currently Alumni Coordinator for Tech and Data and is clear about her passion when describing her job. With great enthusiasm, she says that this is one of the best experiences in the organization, especially because of the care taken with the quality of professional life, working with people who share values.

With her human eye and integrity, she sees LALA in the future being run brilliantly by alumni and the ecosystem growing exponentially in an organic way through the connection between people. Maria Isabel leaves the message for new members to be as present as possible every second, enjoy every first time, and write about the experience! We are eternally grateful for her presence and collaboration and wish her an extraordinary future!

These stories are written and edited by the Storytelling Team, an alumni-lead team that collects stories with the objective of recognizing and celebrating the wonderful work that volunteers, staff, and alumni do for LALA and also showing how the organization has impacted their life.