Building empowerment and confidence with Manuela Dimuccio Gonzalez

M anuela Dimuccio Gonzalez is the co-secretary of the World Bank Group’s Youth to Youth program. Her team works to eradicate extreme poverty by empowering, engaging, and inspiring youth to impact developing countries. In her role and as a young woman who spent years traveling the globe, Manuela has gained insight into tools for self-empowerment and finding the confidence to make a difference in the world.

Empowering young people

Empowerment is a crucial part of Youth to Youth’s work. Manuela is especially passionate about empowering women. She says that to achieve their dreams, women must “fear less” and keep being themselves.

So often, we get caught up in what we feel we should or shouldn’t be; Manuela says it’s all about staying true to your roots and claiming your seat at the table for your authentic self.

Remain humble

It’s very easy to discard what makes you, you on the path to success. But Manuela said part of authenticity is remembering your origins: “Avoid becoming too big for the small place you began.” She emphasized the importance of remaining humble, no matter how “big” we get.

Confidence is crucial

To empower yourself and achieve success, confidence is everything. That doesn’t mean becoming cocky: It simply means being “confident in your choices” to give you the strength to keep going, even when the going gets tough.

It also means not giving up when you make mistakes. They help you “grow and understand” and “make things better in [your] career and personal life,” Manuela explained. Every experience contains a positive lesson and a step toward your greater goals. It’s just a matter of keeping your perspective positive.

About Manuella Dimuccio Gonzalez

Manuela is a young leader, intrapreneur and innovation consultant with a focus on emerging technologies to bridge connections between international organizations, young innovators, techies, entrepreneurs, global changers and rising-star leaders. She was the ICT content Lead during the 2017 World Bank Group’s (WBG) Youth Summit on Technology and Innovation for Impact and founded the Youth in technology series at the WBG as well as an internal podcast called “Voices of Innovation”. She holds positions at UNESCO and the World Bank Group, where she supports the Vice President and Chief Information Officer and is the Co-Secretary of the WBG Youth-to-Youth (Y2Y) Steering Committee.

Her professional and academic background provides her with the fluency in four major languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish, plus a good understanding of Portuguese. She has a global mindset nurtured during her experience working in France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, China, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and the United States of America. Manuela is a first-generation graduate student earning a Master of Science in International Management from the University of Bologna. She holds a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Languages and Communications for Business and Tourism from both the University of Valle d’Aosta in Aosta, Italy and the Université de Savoie in Chambéry, France. Her motto: LIVE, LEARN AND NEVER GIVE UP