For this month's member highlight, we would like to highlight Maria Salcedo, a Step Up Luminary Circle member who is now serving as the chair of Step Up’s Midwestern board of directors. She has been with Step Up since 2013, and throughout the years, Maria has been heavily involved in Step Up programs and events. Through Step Up's events, Maria met other professionals while positively impacting the lives of girls. We spoke with Maria to ask her take on her time with us here at Step Up.
How have Step Up’s networking opportunities helped you meet other like-minded women?
Every person on our board represents also a company. They usually have support from their organization, so it’s kind of like that extended network as well and everyone brings to the table additional friends, acquaintances, that can be valuable for the organization. It’s networking at its best and extending your ability to connect with like-minded people. It’s people that clearly are interested in Step Up and helping our alumni secure a better chance at success by giving them the mentorship that they might not have available. You meet a lot of very impressive trail-blazing individuals within their own fields and across fields: lawyers, engineers, marketers, people that are dedicated social workers, everything. It’s so fantastic and if I stayed in my own little world in my industry, I would be so limited versus what I learn and gather (and also from a regional perspective) from the board.
What are some benefits that you have seen from Step Up's events being held virtually?
It’s hard for everybody. I much rather prefer in-person events because I like people’s energy and I feed off people’s energy. Being realistic, I can join many more events virtually because it’s easier to schedule and be able to be participate. I do think that everyone talks about the hybrid world where hopefully we will land and I think we need to take advantage of that. In-person brings a different energy and clearly is a more traditional way, but it’s not as easy for people to make themselves around to the place or to the city. It’s more costly for our organization as well or for our sponsors and then virtual has these cost benefits and just convenience benefits that I think we can embrace. I think we are going to get really good at identifying which events and types of forums or objectives are better met by having them in-person versus virtual and vice versa.
What made you want to become a board member?
I became familiar with Step Up when I was working at PepsiCo, and some of my close colleagues from Pepsi were involved with Step Up. I was always very drawn to the organization because the women and the girls that benefit the most from this program tend to be in high-risk communities that are by in large Black and Hispanic. I am Hispanic so that is a passion of mine and if I can help my community in any way, I do it, and Step Up has a really structured approach to helping and delivering something that I feel is a very tangible value for the community. So when I joined Ulta, I was super happy to see that Ulta as a company also helps Step Up and sponsors Step Up. I shared this internally and I said I really want to become involved and there was an opportunity to have a change of leadership in the company. So at the beginning, Sarah, who was my boss and was the one sitting on the Step Up board, asked if I wanted to be on the board. I said of course, especially with the continued support from Ulta. It’s something that I find is a very nice intersection of a company that I love so much like Ulta supporting an organization that I believe so much in and then being able to do it in a position where I can influence how we use resources.
What is one thing you may think you would tell your younger self if you were not the most confident with the idea of networking? ?
Networking is very structured in the U.S. I’m from Colombia and in Latin America, it’s not so structured. If you know people, it’s because they’re friends with your parents or you came across them somewhere, it’s not as structured. I understand and can relate to the hesitancy or the fear. Just get over that because there’s nothing to lose. The worst thing that can happen is you had a conversation that wasn’t the most engaging conversation in the world. There’s nothing to lose, but having the ability to talk with so many different people with so many different backgrounds, I guarantee you will always take something and learn something from that. At the end of the day, we’re all just people trying to make meaningful connections, right? I think the same fears that you fear or the same hesitancy that you get when you’re younger, still sometimes holds true when you’re on the other side. Sometimes I’m like did I even say something that was meaningful for these young women? I hope I said something that they can take back or something that resonated, but I don’t know. That insecurity or that hesitancy will always exist, but I know that I’m trying and that gives me a lot of confidence. Because what is the option? Not being involved or not trying and not sharing my experiences because somebody will benefit from it? I would just say you have nothing to lose, you just have the whole world to gain from it.
How has Maria inspired you? What would your advice be to girls who want to make a positive impact on their community? Let us know in the comments below!
