Jessica Kenny: a proud llama

She began as Mr. Kenny’s daughter, wondering at the surrounding of the International School of Curitiba, where she met Mr. D, a person one wouldn’t desire to forget for the rest of the story and that will be almost godly recalled later on.

It may have been due to her family background or even the eager idea of thriving on a groundless path, but an international education sounded truly appealing to her. She applied to a range of colleges and, fortunately, got into Brown University. In her application, she discussed the mixed cultures in Brazil and how she learned about them in family travels in an out-aged motor home. These experiences molded her as a person, but they couldn’t save her from the anxious discovering path she had yet to face.

Once she had reached what modern teenagers consider a life goal: college, it may have sounded like the end of the story, but in fact, it was not. The real climax was that she was curious about everything but not precisely thriving about anything in particular. Without a goal, a proud ivy league student becomes merely an anxious sweet teenager. She felt like a small fish in a large pond with sharks… and nuclear bombs.

At Brown University, as a common undecided liberal arts student, she began connecting with a range of positions, such as an editor in the Brown political magazine, an acapella singer, and a member of the Brown meditation community. She tried endlessly to find her “crowd,” but her defeats in the task quickly became life-long frustrations that certainly would not get any better until an interesting key point at the end of this story.

Eventually, she graduated in Development Studies but wasn’t passionate about any career. Ironically, she spent years at Brown University as the receptionist of the Career Center but didn’t apply to any high-paying jobs that would most likely kill her soul. After saving a considerable amount at the university, she decided to travel and learn about herself. Being a descendant of Italian Immigrants, she decided to begin her adventure in Italy.

After graduation, she bought the cheapest ticket to Italy to get to Borgo Valsugana, a small city where her ancestors had been born. In the travel, she met Alexandro, a man that had lost both his parents in a tragic accident, and saw his friend become his second family, which highlighted to her the importance of community. In Borgo Valsugana, she visited the local church and discovered a treasure. While opening the city’s record book, she found the marriage certificate of her great-great-great-grandparents. In the margins of the document, there was the message: “immigrated to Brazil in 1875”.

Once she returned to Brazil, she found a job as an English teacher, which she was indeed grateful for but wasn’t the ideal career she had expected. She felt miserable as nights turned. At this point, it was time to be an adult and face the real world, but as we could imagine, the real world sounds just like a Savana of miserable people trying to survive, which indeed isn’t appealing at all. At the edge of fear, she met one of her favorite teachers at school: Mr. K (I hope you did not forget). At a Coffee Store, they discussed their turns in life, and she confessed the anxiety she had been facing.

In fact, we will indeed never know if it was luck or even just the way things had to occur, but Mr. D, David Batista, was interestingly one of the founders of the Latin America Leadership Academy that knowing her anxiety, allowed her to be part of one of the first Bootcamps. Once she entered the place, she felt healing. She finally reached the surface of her emotion and could feel the empathy of a leadership community.

After the Bootcamp, she encountered ways to be connected with LALA. As a Staff, she organized the bootcampers nightly time and assisted in the development of the event. After many efforts and even an internship, she was invited to be one of the four people who officially worked at LALA in Colombia. At that time, she was yet in a dark phase of her life, feeling as if she did not belong anywhere. She had to quit her job, the undergraduate course she started in Brazil, and even her therapist. However, she felt that LALA was the opportunity to be connected with a community. Therefore, she moved to Colombia and found what truly meant to be herself, Jessica Kenny, a proud “Llama.” Jess believes that LALA saved her life and her individuality and hopes it does the same to each of you.

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 to show how the organization has impacted their life.