Ensena por Argentina in underprivileged schools

Context
When Argentina was facing the 2001 economic crisis, Pablo was a 17-year-old student who felt deeply worried about his country’s future. He saw the struggles of his father’s small business and began volunteering through his local parish, preparing meals for people living on the streets. That early experience of solidarity sparked in him a lifelong commitment to social change.

After studying Political Science, Pablo started working in the private sector but soon realized something was missing: purpose. “I felt that what I was doing had no real impact on society,” he recalls. “I wanted to be part of something that could truly change people’s lives.”

Challenge
Searching for that sense of meaning, Pablo came across a call from Enseñá por Argentina — part of the global Teach For All network — recruiting young professionals to teach for two years in vulnerable communities. He applied and became part of the first cohort of 14 fellows in 2011.

Assigned to teach Citizenship, Sociology, and Political Economy in three public-subsidized schools, Pablo faced classrooms filled with students carrying big dreams but few opportunities. Many wanted to pursue university studies yet lacked confidence or role models who had done so.

Transformation
Determined to connect learning with students’ realities, Pablo redesigned his lessons to make them meaningful and empowering. “I wanted them to see that education could be their bridge to a better life,” he says. He took students on visits to universities, the National Congress, and local councils — helping them imagine futures beyond their neighborhoods.

Over time, he saw remarkable change: students who once doubted themselves started applying to higher education and believing in their own potential. Pablo also traveled to San Francisco through Teach For All to exchange experiences with educators from around the world — an experience that broadened his understanding of educational transformation.

After completing the Programa de Liderazgo Colectivo (Collective Leadership Program), Pablo won a Chevening Scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Education Policy at the University of London. Later, he returned to Enseñá por Argentina as Program Director and then as Executive Director between 2018 and 2019.

Lasting Impact
Today, Pablo leads his family-owned company with the same principles he learned in the classroom: empathy, collaboration, and purpose-driven leadership. He has implemented a triple impact strategy, building partnerships with schools (many through Enseñá por Argentina alumni), offering internships, and donating equipment to educational institutions. Inside the company, he created a Diversity & Inclusion Committee and encourages employees to design community impact projects.

“Teaching transformed my leadership forever,” Pablo says. “I still carry into my work the same lessons I learned in the classroom: build goals together, listen deeply, empower others, and never stop learning.”

His journey from teacher to CEO illustrates how transformative leadership — once sparked in a classroom — can ripple outward, creating lasting social change in every sector of society.

María Laura and Emilia are passionate, curious educators—the kind who sign up for every opportunity to grow and stay up to date. Both work in underserved schools in Maipú, a town about 15 kilometers from downtown Mendoza, Argentina. Despite their many similarities, they had never met—until 2021, when they joined the first Mendoza cohort of the Collective Leadership Program.

From that moment on, they became an innovative teaching duo, breaking down classroom walls and even crossing borders. Together, they launched an educational exchange with a rural community in Tonah, near Puebla, Mexico. The project invited students from Mendoza and Mexico to write letters to one another, asking anything they were curious about. What started as simple letters grew into something much deeper.

The connection between the two communities became so strong that it sparked a creative exchange: students began weaving tapestries in Mendoza, which were then completed in Mexico. These woven pieces became powerful symbols of the educational and emotional ties formed across borders—threads of learning, empathy, and collaboration that now bind two distant communities together.