by Diya Thennarasu, 2024–2025 Miss CEO Ambassador
Back in late July, Miss CEO held its annual Leadership Lab. In this inspiring and transformative two-day workshop, girls across the Bay Area gathered together to discover their inner leaders. The event was full of structured activities that helped the girls clarify their goals, and tone set for their futures, and become more confident in themselves. As a participant myself, I saw first-hand how the experience nurtured our self-esteem and pushed us to become more empathetic individuals. At the same time, the Miss CEO Leadership Lab also encouraged us to ask: What does being a leader mean to you?
The word “leader” is often thrown around in casual conversation, making it easy to forget what it means. Like many high schoolers, I’ve usually felt overwhelmed when it comes to my academic life and have psyched myself numerous times over my abilities to accomplish something. We are rarely told how to confidently navigate this aspect of our lives, because it’s often a personal experience and one that everyone gets to define for themselves. Since the traits of a leader are subjective, it can feel awkward to adopt an identity that we can only hope others find admirable. This struggle is especially true for young women, who are often taught, consciously or not, to hold back and stay quiet even before they speak.
This sentiment resonated with many of the girls who attended the Leadership Lab. When interviewing some of the attendees about their key takeaways from the experience, Inaaya, a sophomore at Henry M Gunn High School said, “What the [Leadership] Lab did for me was it opened me up to a whole new group of goals that I didn’t realize I could even have to begin with.” Few of us had realized how passive many female leaders are — not by choice, but due to an internal voice urging them not to take up space. As a result, we realized we’d avoided taking up opportunities that would have benefited us, out of fear that we wouldn’t be good enough.
“What the [Leadership] Lab did for me was it opened me up to a whole new group of goals that I didn’t realize I could even have to begin with.”
One of the Lab’s workshops focused on shifting our language in professional settings. It wasn’t until “I’m not sure if this is a good idea” became “I want to propose another idea” and “denying” became “owning”
that I realized I could choose how I wanted to be perceived rather than wait for others to judge me. Miss CEO introduced this concept, along with other common communication pitfalls in such a personalized and intentional way. The moment we started brainstorming alternate phrases to use in professional settings, I felt a total shift in the way many of the girls, including myself, spoke. We all sounded more confident and defiant; not wanting to participate in the subtle form of misogyny, and we all sympathized with everyone’s experiences. When asked about her favorite part of the Leadership Lab, Evangelina, a sophomore at Saratoga High School said, “Even though we only knew each other for two days, we
connected and had a sense of community. We all were there for the same purpose and everyone was searching for things to connect over.” Like Evangelina, I could truly feel how deeply Miss CEO cared about the individual feelings, strengths, and pitfalls of each of its participants.
“Even though we only knew each other for two days, we
connected and had a sense of community. We all were there for the same purpose and everyone was searching for things to connect over.”
As for me, the Miss CEO Leadership Lab can be summed up in one word: empowering. I know from personal experience that feelings of self-doubt can be hard to shake off. However, being introduced to others who were going through the same changes as me, gave me solace and inspiration to set high goals for myself, despite feelings of self-doubt. In other words: when we’re not offered a space in the fields that interest us, we often forget that we’re allowed to enter them anyway.
About the author:
Diya Thennarasu is a junior at Early College High School in Fairfield, California. Diya is passionate about bridging the gap between STEM and literature and enjoys advocating for fashion sustainability. As the founder and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine, Ethic Threads Review and a staff writer for the organization Centerpoint, she’s gained confidence in her writing skills and ability to communicate problems to others. She also serves as the Region 3 President for the California Association of Student Councils where she promotes youth involvement within education systems, and provides a platform for students to share their voices on important issues. In her free time, Diya loves creative writing, reading, and playing Wordle or the NYT Connections. Diya is thrilled to be a Miss CEO Ambassador this year and encourage young women to accomplish their goals!
