In my experience, the greater Colorado community is comprised of many different stories. From leaders like Katie Kramer at the Boettcher Foundation, which makes investments in and builds communities for college-bound seniors, to leaders like Steve Foster at Convercent, which works to provide businesses, schools and government agencies resources to create and reinforce strong ethical and moral workplace practices, Colorado leaders at the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation have cultivated an environment where we can listen to community members to create positive change. Without the support of the Colorado Leadership Alliance (and the leaders that heard my story), I would not have had a platform to share my experiences as a queer Latinx student, airmen and local leader at CU Boulder. Since I’ve started college, my leadership has significantly evolved. Today, I understand that leadership boils down to multiple paradigms and philosophies – failing frequently, learning through shared experiences and being vulnerable enough to share my story. This trip was an important stepping stone towards my journey as a leader.
As a student delegate for this year’s Leadership Exchange (LEX) trip, I had the privilege of examining leadership application from a different lens. The common theme I learned from Dallas leaders was the importance of storytelling and active listening. Of all the excursions, from Big Thought to Southwest Airlines, the most impactful excursion for me was Café Momentum. Chad Houser, the CEO and executive chef, shared his experience confronting his preconceived notions about youth in juvenile detention centers – whilst helping them prepare for an ice cream competition. When the young men called him “sir,” he recognized that he connoted them with stereotypes that follow the juvenile detention centers; when he learned their stories, what systemic injustices that brought them into the system and what is keeping many of them there, he was compelled to create a positive impact through cooking. In his organization, he empowers at-risk youth through internships, social support resources, brave spaces to succeed and job-readiness training to break the school-to-prison pipeline in Dallas.
The founders and leaders of the organizations we met with made it clear that their journey started with a paradigm shift, where they learned stories that challenged their single-narrative beliefs or preconceived notions. The true problem facing their communities wasn’t that the people were broken, but instead that they lacked the resources and opportunities to break out of the oppressive systems that they were in. Using their professional backgrounds and relationships, community leaders sought out more stories, and thus built organizations that work to address their communities’ evolving problems. Their work created significant change in the community, as they showed through recidivism statistics and youth reflection stories.
In the town hall discussion following these excursions, it was clear that Colorado leaders felt inspired to discuss the implementation of community-based solutions in Colorado – referencing Southwest’s business model, diversity and inclusion practices in the Dallas Mavericks and the community stories inside Bonton Farms. I shared those feelings; I was grateful to share these learning experiences with local leaders, gain extraordinary lessons in mentorship and build connections with others to devoted to evolving their community. Because of this sentiment, I believe that more students should have the opportunity to come on this trip, and more students should learn about the work that this organization is doing. Every leader has something to bring to the table, they just need the opportunity to share it with you.
Selena Quintanilla is a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, pursuing a major in computer science and minors in leadership studies and computational mathematics. She served as the student delegate on LEX Dallas.
