Six weeks ago, I began my Leadership in Action project with Fundación SORA, a social organisation based in Comuna 13, Medellín. At the beginning of our project, my team identified three areas where we hoped we could make a meaningful contribution: activating the MediaLab, increasing SORA’s visibility and developing partnerships that could support the organisation beyond our 6 weeks in Medellín.
One of our main focuses was the MediaLab, a computer room with eight computers that was relatively underutilised. Although the children enjoyed using the computers, they were primarily used for playing games, with limited opportunities to learn digital skills.
Activating the MediaLab required us to think carefully about how we could introduce digital skills in a way that would genuinely engage the children. Their ages, previous experience with computers and confidence levels varied considerably, so simply teaching technical concepts would not have been very effective. We therefore tried to make each workshop interactive and creative, allowing the children to learn through making something themselves.
Over the six weeks, we designed and delivered a series of workshops with the children. We began with a cultural introduction, sharing aspects of our own countries and cultures while learning more about Colombia from the children. From there, we introduced workshops covering coding, AI and digital safety, Canva and other digital skills.
As a Mathematics and Computer Science student, I was particularly keen to share my own enjoyment of coding and show the children that programming can be both creative and fun. I therefore took responsibility for designing and leading a series of workshops using Scratch. I wanted to introduce programming in a way that was visual, accessible and, most importantly, enjoyable for children who had little or no previous coding experience. Before the sessions, I developed the activities myself and coded demonstrations that I could use to guide the children through each task. This required me to think not only how the code worked, but also how I could break it down into simple steps and communicate the logic behind it without overwhelming them. Although Scratch was one of the first platforms I used when learning to code, I had not worked with it for many years, having since moved to languages such as Python or C# as required in my school and university projects. Returning to its blocked-based environment initially required some adjustment as I familiarised myself with the platform again and worked out how best to translate programming concepts into simple and engaging activities.
In one workshop, I created a game in which the children programmed a sprite to chase a taco around the screen. Each time the sprite reached the taco, the taco moved to a new random position. Although this was designed as a fun game, it introduced several fundamental programming concepts, including movement, events, loops, and randomness. In another workshop, I gave the children greater creative freedom by challenging them to use Scratch to develop their own short stories. Rather than simply copying my demonstration, they could choose their own sprites, backgrounds, dialogue, and interactions. I particularly enjoyed seeing how differently they interpreted the task and how quickly they moved from following instructions to experimenting independently. I many ways, this reminded me of why I first became interested in programming. The satisfaction of experimenting with an idea, solving problems when something does not work, and eventually seeing something you have created come to life.
Leading these workshops also challenged my understanding of leadership. I initially associated leading a session with being well prepared and knowing exactly what I wanted to teach. In practice, I learned that effective leadership often meant being willing to move away from the plan. Some children completed activities much faster than expected, while others needed individual support or became distracted. There were also moments when language differences made explaining a technical concept more difficult than I had anticipated. I had to adapt explanations, demonstrate concepts visually and work alongside the children rather than simply instructing them. This taught me that leadership is not necessarily about having complete control over a situation. It can instead involve listening, responding, and creating an environment in which other people feel confident enough to participate.
We also moved beyond the computers with activities such as a reading challenge. When we first introduced the activity, several of the children were hesitant and not particularly enthusiastic about reading. Rather than pushing them to participate immediately, we tried to make the session more engaging by reading alongside them, encouraging discussion, and giving them the freedom to choose material that interested them. As the workshop progressed, their attitudes began to shift, and it was rewarding to see children who had initially been reluctant become more involved and willing to read.
Working directly with the children also helped me understand the importance of building relationships before expecting engagement. At times activities that we thought would immediately interest them were initially met with hesitation, while other activities became popular in ways we had not anticipated. Over the six weeks as the children became more familiar with us, it became easier to encourage them to participate and try unfamiliar activities. This required patience and empathy, particularly when a child was reluctant to participate. Rather than seeing disengagement as a failure of the workshop, I learned to think more carefully about why someone might not be engaging and how we could make the activity feel more accessible.
A second challenge was visibility. SORA does a great deal of work within the community, but we wanted to make it easier for people outside the organisation, including potential volunteers, partners, and visitors, to understand what the foundation does and how they can support it.
To help with this, we created new pinned Instagram content explaining the who, what and where of Fundación SORA. We also developed a simple website using Google Sites, bringing together SORA’s story, photographs, contact information and opportunities for collaboration.
Throughout the six weeks, we also filmed moments from our workshops and spoke to members of the foundation about their experiences. These were brought together into a short promotional video combining interviews with clips of SORA’s activities. Finally, we added Fundación SORA to Google Maps, including photographs and a link to the new website, making it easier for tourists, potential partners, and volunteers to find the organisation within Comuna 13.
Working on SORA’s visibility also made me think more critically about what it means to support a community organisation from an outside perspective. Comuna 13 has undergone enormous change and is now visited by large number of tourists every day, but SORA’s work is mainly rooted in the everyday needs and relationships of the local community. It was therefore important that our content reflected how SORA wanted to present itself rather than simply how we perceived the organisation. This required humility and collaboration. I learned that contributing effectively did not mean arriving with all the answers but listening to the people who understood the organisation and its community far better than we did and using our skills to support their priorities.
Perhaps one of the outcomes I am most excited about is the relationships we developed with local volunteers from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB). Sustainability was an important consideration throughout our project. We knew that our time in Medellin was limited, so we also had to think about what could continue after we left. We connected SORA with local university volunteers and had the opportunity to deliver workshops alongside them, allowing the volunteers to begin building their own relationships with the children and the organisation.
At the beginning of the project, it was easy to focus on what we ourselves could achieve within six weeks. However, the more time I spent at SORA, the more aware I became that the value of our work would ultimately depend on what could continue without us. Working alongside local volunteers was therefore particularly important as they brought their own knowledge of Medellín and Colombia, shared a language and cultural context with the children, and had the potential to maintain a relationship with SORA long after our departure. Our role increasingly became not only to deliver activities ourselves, but to create connections and resources that others could take forwards.
This required me to become more comfortable with the idea that successful leadership does not always mean personally leading everything. In some situations, the most useful contribution was to step back, collaborate and enable somebody else to take ownership. Seeing the local volunteers begin to develop their own relationships with the children was particularly rewarding because it represented something that could continue independently of our presence. It shifted my understanding of impact away from simply counting the workshops or resources we had produced towards whether we had helped strengthen SORA’s capacity in the longer term.
Alongside this, we created a partnership database identifying organisations and potential collaborators that SORA could connect with in the future. I hope that the relationship with the UPB volunteers continues to develop and that they can build on some of the workshops we started, particularly within the MediaLab.
Looking at our project, our work particularly aligned with two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Good Health and Well-being and Quality Education. Fundación SORA provides safe community spaces that promote healthy habits and aim to create positive change in the lives of children and other members of the community. This includes providing meals to children through its community restaurant, alongside spaces where they can learn, socialise, and participate in activities. By improving SORA’s visibility and developing resources and partnerships that can support their work in the longer term, we hoped to strengthen the organisation’s wider contribution towards this SDG.
Our work in the MediaLab connected more directly with the SDG Quality Education. By delivering workshops in areas such as coding, AI and digital safety, and reading, we aimed to provide the children with additional opportunities to develop digital and other skills. Connecting SORA with local university volunteers was particularly important in making this contribution more sustainable, as they can continue to deliver educational activities and build upon the workshops we introduced. In this way, our project aimed not only to provide educational opportunities during our six weeks, but also support SORA in continuing to provide these opportunities in the future.
On a personal level, the experience has changed how I understand leadership in practice. Before arriving in Medellín, I might have thought about leadership primarily in terms of taking initiative, organising a team, or confidently directing a project. While those skills were important, my experience at SORA showed me that leadership can also require humility, empathy, and adaptability. There were times when I needed to take responsibility, such as preparing and leading the Scratch workshops, and others when I needed to listen to the organisation, collaborate with local volunteers or change an activity because it was not working as expected. Working in an unfamiliar cultural and linguistic environment made this more challenging, but it also pushed me to become more confident in communicating despite uncertainty and more willing to learn from the people around me.
I have also become more aware of the responsibility involved in entering a community for a relatively short period and trying to contribute meaningfully. Our role was never to assume that we could transform SORA in six weeks. Instead, I came to see our project as an opportunity to contribute particular skills, ideas and connections while recognising the expertise that already existed within the organisation. This required me to challenge the assumption that impact always needs to be immediate or easily measurable. Some of the outcomes I value most such as the relationships formed between SORA and the UPB volunteers or a child's increased confidence using scratch, are small but have the potential to develop further.
Looking back, I see the project’s impact across three areas: digital literacy, visibility, and collaboration. Although six weeks is a relatively short period of time, I hope we have created resources, connections, and ideas that SORA can continue to develop after our departure. Equally the project has changed my own understanding of leadership. I leave Medellín recognising that meaningful leadership is not simply about taking charge or producing visible outcomes, but about listening, adapting, collaborating, and helping create something that can continue without you. I'm particularly proud of seeing the children become more confident exploring the MediaLab, of the resources we created to strengthen SORA’s visibility, and of the relationships formed with local volunteers. While our six weeks at SORA have come to an end, I hope that these small foundations can continue to grow.