«”If I help one person to have hope, I will not have lived in vain” Martin Luther King

I am the seed of my murdered mother. This is the best description I can give of myself. I survived to share with you through these few lines my three Ps: my purpose, my passion, and my pleasure.

My name is Ángela Kohler. I carry the name Ángela as a form of gratitude to my mother’s best friend, and I bear it with pride because I always associate it with the figure of an angel, a celestial and kind being. I was born in a small municipality called Sonsón, located four hours away from the capital of the department of Antioquia, Colombia. Sonsón is an impressive place, not only because of its spectacular natural surroundings but also because of its historical significance and its friendly people.

It was precisely in this municipality where in 1988, as a teenager, my eyes witnessed what would be the most challenging moment of my life. My mother, a forty-five-year-old woman, a leader and support for vulnerable people, for whom the education of her four children was a priority, was murdered in front of the eyes of my fourteen-year-old brother and me, who was thirteen at the time. As it is only logical, my brain couldn’t comprehend what was happening, and it took me a while to react. My brother and I are alive; we could have died in that same space, but it didn’t happen. Today, we are the seed and the voice of this woman because people can be eliminated, but not their ideas.

I followed my mother’s legacy. After finishing high school as one of the top students, I obtained a place at the most important public university in the region, the University of Antioquia, where I studied Psychology on a scholarship. Upon completing my studies, I joined one of Colombia’s most renowned public institutions, SENA (National Learning Service).

I had the privilege of being with SENA for seventeen years, holding various positions, mostly in leadership roles. I never imagined that the recent graduate who entered an institution with over two thousand public servants to submit her resume would become its director sixteen years later. It’s a feat that few can claim. I resigned from SENA because I wanted to experience another challenge, this time in the capital of my country, Bogotá, at the Ministry of Education. There, I served as a director and acted as vice minister on several occasions. From there, I traveled throughout my country and witnessed firsthand the inequalities and inequities faced by hundreds of people who do not benefit from social programs, partly due to corruption by some officials.

I worked tirelessly for twenty years and received numerous accolades as the best employee. I alternated work with studies for my master’s degrees and specializations in the fields of Education, Management, and Law. Then I made one of the biggest decisions of my life: I resigned from my professional and work activities to dedicate myself to volunteer work, also in honor of my mother’s memory.

In 2016, without ranks or labels, just being Ángela, I moved to the United States with the intention of staying for one year. Unplanned, I met my husband three months after my arrival, and we now live in a beautiful place called St. Petersburg, located in the state of Florida. Once settled here and considering myself an eternal learner, I wanted to continue my education and sought a university that would allow me to study from the comfort of my home and under the most convenient methodology for me. That’s how I came across UTH Florida University during an internet search. The value of this university is that it utilizes innovative technology and methodology with affordable costs. I pursued my first master’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing, and later they provided me the opportunity to study another master’s degree in International Business. It was a wonderful experience because the method they use involves case studies, which allows us to solve real-life situations. The faculty and administrative staff are highly professional.

After completing my two master’s degrees, the idea arose to make my education, experience, and, above all, my newly discovered purpose in life available to humanity: to serve. From my passions and what brings me pleasure, pedagogy and teaching, I created a knowledge network called Happynar. This is a space where experts in the fields of well-being and happiness from neuroscience come together. Together, we apply the four Cs: we conceive and create quality knowledge to improve the lives of hundreds of people around the world. Within Happynar, a beautiful collective of women is born, who have four elements in common: we are women, immigrants, entrepreneurs, and Latinas. That’s why I decided to call us “las mujeres miel” (the honey women).

This social enterprise began three years ago, and the results have been wonderful. Just a few weeks ago, I was honored with the Latin American Leaders Awards, the most important recognition in Central Europe for Latin American leaders working in Sustainable Development and Innovation. I received this recognition as a result of the thousands of people impacted in the areas of well-being and happiness through neuroscience, my six authored books and two co-authored books, and the development of an innovative and human leadership model called compassionate leadership. At this moment, I am pursuing my fourth master’s degree in Innovation.

I deeply admire the women who rise every morning to fight for their children, for their country. They are social leaders who risk their own lives for the benefit of others. I am inspired by the women who, in some way, amid their loneliness, anguish, and fear, overcome challenges in a new and unfamiliar country where their language is not spoken and their documents are not in order. Those are the women who inspire me: those who lack visibility, those who are anonymous, those who work eighteen hours a day, those who feel alone, and yet, despite all of that, manage to rise above it all.

I invite you to learn more about Happynar and Mujeres Miel through the website www.happynar.com or www.angelamentora.com. My social media handles are @angelamentora. Join these knowledge networks so that we can continue transforming lives