Take space, make space.

Sara, a university student, feminist, and Potterhead, is someone whose hobbies are dancing, playing the guitar, and many others. All these aspects express a bit of who Sara Costa Pedreira is.

Sara is 21 years old and lives in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). She heard about LALA in 2017 through one of her mentees in the YYGS Fellowship Brazil program. A project which she and other YYGS (Yale Young Global Scholars) ex-alumni founded in order to help other teenagers in the application process.

YYGS is a disputed summer camp offered by the University of Yale to young people worldwide. In 2017, Sara had the opportunity to enjoy the program. She experienced many “first tries” at once. It was her first time traveling internationally, her first time traveling alone, and also immersing herself in an English-speaking country. She says that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it felt like she was outside her reality for a moment and went to a culturally diverse place and was academically instigating.

Because of this program, she started showing interest in research, later on finding herself in the scientific research area. Now, she’s graduating in Economics and researching in the field of gender and education, as well as in public politics in the US as a whole. Besides that, Sara has always been curious and competitive. As she always liked reading and writing, she writes diaries and runs a blog where she posts her poetry work. Sara also has been active in her school environment, developing and working on projects about sustainability or cinema.

But, talking a bit more about the program that will always be in her life… Do you remember that she got to know LALA in 2017? Well, she only joined one of the bootcamps in 2019, that was BLB6, which happened in São Paulo, Brazil. Sara never felt so heard and embraced in her teenagehood as when she put her feet on Pousada dos Franceses, where the bootcamp used to happen. “I’m in a place where I know I can be who I am without judgment”: that is how she felt in the community, which she describes as very inclusive, caring, and loving. Sara believes in the importance of giving space to other voices and making people feel heard. That was what she felt at LALA, with the phrase she keeps with her until today: Take space, make space.

Nowadays, Sara is part of the Storytelling of LALA, which she helps promote our community. We’re grateful for your contribution, and we believe that the world can be a better place when there are people who are willing to serve others and want to extract the best from them, always, just like Sara.

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.