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Humans of IBCoM: Wrapping Up with Cecilia Arroyo on leadership, passion, and year in rewind

Humans of IBCoM: Wrapping Up with Cecilia Arroyo on leadership, passion, and year in rewind

For the sixth and the last Humans of IBCoM edition of this year, I interviewed one of the most enthusiastic students out there – Cecilia. You might know her for a lot of things, and editor-in-chief of the IBCoMagazine is among them. During 2019/2020 she was the one leading and representing the team of creative and talented students who contributed to the making of IBCoMagazine as it is today. In this piece, Cecilia shared with us where she seeks her inspiration, highlighted the passing year for the magazine, and elaborated on her routines during the pandemic.

Daily Routines & Inspirations
In light of current events, many of us have re-adjusted our daily routines to meet the changes imposed by the pandemic. Due to the closing of schools, universities, and other institutions, homes have turned into our workspaces. For Cecilia, the whole process has been a journey. She, like many of us, has gone through all the steps of grief with everything that happened over the last month and a half. On the bright side though, she says:

“I try to focus on the positive and just be grateful that I am healthy and so is my family, and that sooner or later things will go back to normal”.

While for some not being able to go outside sounds limiting, these times are a great opportunity to go inside of your inner self and re-connect to things that are important to us and that in some way can contribute to our self-realization. When having a bit of spare time, Cecilia tries to read everything she can get her hands on articles, magazines, blogs, recipes, books, and the list goes on. Besides, she is a major planner. Once a week Cecilia makes sure to devote some time to the things she likes doing as that is what enriches her with positive energy. For those who are looking for useful planning tools, Cecilia suggests app Notion as it is great for organizing things.

In the endless loop of assignments, committee responsibilities, and personal life it might be rather complicated to always be inspired when working on the magazine. However, for Cecilia, this is not the case. She derives her inspiration from the team by listening to everyone’s recommendations and ideas while merging them into something doable. Besides, Cecilia finds inspiration in women holding positions of power and leadership, such as Sophia Amoruso, Anna Wintour, Taylor Swift, Ruth Handler, Tory Burch, and many many more.


IBCoMagazine: A year in review
When a team of creative and passionate people gathers together to work on something, many great things happen, and, well, IBCoMagazine is one of them. Trying to point out one highlight of this year for the magazine was hard for Cecilia as there have been so many amazing momentums.

‘The editorial team made everything so much better, I had the fiercest and most passionate ladies beside me, always thinking, planning, excited about what is to come. And the full team, how they attended the meetings and events, how they produced pieces, illustrations, photography, designs, everything with so much love for what they were doing that is contagious. The whole experience is highlighted in bright neon yellow in the pages of my memory forever’.

If Cecilia had to describe in one word how this year for the IBCoMagazine went that would be ‘growth’. According to her, the team took something that was amazing, creative, and free and gave it a bit more direction and growth to the sense that they reconnected it with IBCoM and unlocked a potential that no one didn’t even know it could have.

‘I cannot express how proud I am of all the team and what we accomplished this year, even with the circumstances that we are living in. We are truly here to create, as our new slogan says’.

While holding the editor-in-chief position brings many benefits, according to Cecilia, recognition is the most rewarding one. Recognition comes in the number of clicks to the magazines, to the blog posts, the shares of the members of the team encouraging each other, and promoting each other’s pieces. That is all recognition of all of the teams’ hard work.

As the 2019/2020 editorial year is closely coming to an end, the current team is eagerly looking for new enthusiasts to take on their positions. Cecilia believes that passion, drive, and persistence are important traits for the next editor-in-chief. According to her, the magazine needs someone with not only planning skills but that taste for leadership without being controlling that will allow the team to stay focused and continue growing.

Looking back now, the main advice Cecilia would give herself when starting an editor-in-chief position is to not worry that much. She is a true believer that great people with you and ahead of you can make the process much easier than you think.

“Besides that, a piece of advice I give everyone because it truly makes life easier: Don’t try to hide your enthusiasm, that is what drives people to care in the same way about what you are doing. Don’t let the world tell you it is lame to care and to show it, it is a great asset and it will help you thrive.”

Author: Polina Hyrb
Editor: Kat Nivera

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