Once I was a girl like them

During November 2017 I traveled to Chile to attend a conference. I love how my job gives me the possibility to travel and in this case to enjoy time with my family.

This was my first time visiting my home country after getting my PhD. As you probably can imagine the space physics community in Chile is relatively small, but thankfully growing fast and being very productive. Sadly, the men/women ratio of space scientist in my country is really far from even (I only know 2 females in space physics, and I am one of them).

I started wondering, how did I get here? I came to the conclusion that it was a mix of things. First, my parents always told me there is nothing I couldn't accomplish if I dedicate my efforts to it. Second, throughout my career I have always have inspiring people as mentors, starting from my high school teacher to my most recent boss.

I always feel I have received so much from others (family, friends, teachers, professors, mentors...), so I need to start giving back!

In 2017, when I visited Chile, I was given the opportunity to give a talk at my high school, it was awesome! I talked about how did I get to where I am right now, told them a bit about research, I tried to convince them to learn English (I didn't do this and my English is still lousy), but most importantly I could tell them not to stop if they have a dream even when all the people will tell them 'it is impossible'!