Student Leadership Success Show Season SkillsUSA National VP Aliyana

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Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" Leadership, leadership, leadership, success, success, success. Hi, my name is Jonathan Medina. I'm America's number one, youth motivator. I'm your teacher. I'm your coach. I'm your friend and I'm your teammate. And today we're talking about leadership and success. We have an awesome guest. 

Aliyana Martin

?? the national region, one vice president of SkillsUSA

?? serves on the democratic elementary and secondary education for Massachusetts council for career tech. 

?? worked as at a pediatric office and is getting a medical assistant certification this upcoming month

?? owns her own bakery.

Please help me welcome our guests. Aliyana.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (01:00): Hi, how are you doing? Great. Great, great. So I do want to mention that they already heard, I just introduced you so everyone already knows about all of your amazing accomplishments. They know that you are the skills USA, regional one vice president. They also know that you are an amazing Baker or that you own your own bakery. So I'm not sure if the actual baking yourself, but you have to tell us what is your favorite cupcake?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (01:27): Oh, I have a cupcake. Okay. I got you. What is your favorite? Oh, sorry. I thought you meant when they come. My favorite cupcake would have to be funfetti

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (01:40): Fetty. Awesome. Awesome. So you get like the, the fun, the fun ones. Awesome. Love it. Now I do want to ask how did you get started in student leadership? What were the first things, you know, when did you get started in middle school? Did you start in high school or tell us what was your journey like in the beginning?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (01:56): Yes. So I started my leadership journey in high school. I made a promise to myself my eighth grade year that I was going to accomplish my dreams to try out as many things as I could, once I got into high school. And honestly just get out of my comfort zone and explore the endless possibilities that my school provided.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (02:13): Now, you just mentioned getting out of your comfort zone. So what was it like going to that very first meeting, where you were getting out of your comfort zone? What did that feel like? What were the thoughts that you were going through?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (02:22): I was very nervous because I was pretty shy student, so I was kind of like, okay, I'm in a new environment with new people. I was very nervous, but more so also company that I was in an environment where people accepting me for me. So I was excited and nervous.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (02:37): You know, I completely understand that I myself was nervous. It took me like a whole year. I remember seeing the signs for like the club meetings, like the, the flyers on the walls and saying like, tell myself I should join. I felt it in the inside that I should be a part of the club, but I was too nervous. So it took me a whole year. And then once I got there, everyone was so welcoming. Everyone was so nice. I'm sure you've made many, many friends as a, of the club. Can you tell us about some of your friends?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (03:01): Sure. I definitely have a lot of friends, especially within schools. You have to say I'm so close with both the state and national officer team. I just love that the fact that we all have the same goals and we inspire one another to accomplish those.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (03:14): Okay. So if someone else was just getting started, someone else, maybe they've never been a part of any clubs or maybe they're in their first few meetings. What would be your number one, tip your number one secret to give to someone if they were just getting started?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (03:27): I would say, just go for it. Don't hesitate. Sign your name on that paper. Don't think too much about it. Honestly, just getting your foot right in that door and just knowing when or lose your innate in, you're going to accomplish whatever, whether that's expanding on your employability skills or your own personal self-growth or competence, just go for it.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (03:48): Awesome. I love that advice of going for it. I think that's so, so important, especially as you joined in the clubs, I think when you, when you go for it, you start creating that momentum of like, Oh, but you know, if you, if you go for it your freshman year, I think by the time you're a senior, you'll be the student that's winning the award. That's going to the state level, to the national level. And so if someone just became an officer and they're trying to encourage all the other kids to go for, how would you encourage them to motivate others?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (04:18): For somebody who's already an officer encouraging other students, I would definitely say show them that they can see themselves within you. Whether that's saying they see you presenting a speech or delivering a workshop, we carry your best traits so that they can say, wow, I see within John, I see Jonathan within me. You don't. So just honestly, keep yourself humbled and motivated and just showing someone that if you can do it, they can too, because nothing is limited to anybody.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (04:46): Yeah. I think back to one of the students that I used to mentor, he went on to being a state office or officer. And, but we drove in a van and I could hear it. He was asleep and I could hear the other kids conversations talking about them. And they often thought like he was this much better leader than them. And I thought to myself, I have to teach all the other students that really he's just like them. He's he's not a robot. He's not Superman. He's just like them. And back when he was a freshmen, all it was, he was there. They're already steps ahead of him because he was going to conference by himself, but they're going with the whole entire team. So they were actually going to advantage compared to him. Now what would be a mistake that you would tell someone early in their leadership to avoid?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (05:29): Oh, okay. This is a good question. I would say, do not take on many opportunities or I shouldn't say opportunities. Many activities say you are committed to working a 40 hours a week job. Don't join 30 different clothes because you want to say committed to one thing in a goal, not saying limit yourself to many opportunities, but don't join 30 clubs because you're going to take away that focus from something you really want to do. Yeah. And I think many students

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (05:58): Who are just like you, they aspire to go onto college. And I do the interviews for Georgetown university, or I've done many, many interviews. So when kids want to go to Georgetown in my area, they have to meet with me and talk to me. And many times I look at a resume and I start asking them questions about all these different clubs and they'll have a huge, huge list of clubs that they're involved with. But when I asked you know, maybe since you're so involved with skills USA, what if you happen to maybe do DECA also, and I'll ask you about DECA and you have nothing to say because you put it on a list. You, you signed up. And so you're putting it on a resume that you're involved, but you really have no stories. You have no. And when you become this high-capacity leader, you know, your stories with skills, USA are going to be so many great stories. All the grades, leadership, all the people you've met, all the ways they've impacted you. And you have things to say about it versus if you listed a bunch of things and then you don't have anything to say about the other stuff, it kind of looks a little bad. Now I believe that coaches and mentors are absolutely essential. Can you tell me about how a coach or a mentor has really influenced you?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (07:06): Sure. So my now advisor, Ms. Fox, she mentored me in the fact that honestly just be yourself. I was very afraid that I had to be something that I wasn't. I had to be the best that I could be because I'm in a national organization with so many student leaders. I thought I had to have straight A's and perfect attendance, but truly just being yourself is what matters. Like I said, you want someone to say, well, I could see myself within that person because I'm just truly who I am with perfections and imperfections, because at the end of the day, no one is perfect in this world, but you can strive to be just within yourself.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (07:40): Absolutely. Absolutely. Now you talk about some of those specific things like grades or what are some things that you would measure? Like if you were to put out your year, it's about to be 20, 21. And so you're going to put some goals and that you specifically want to maybe measure, maybe you it's like, Oh, we want to increase attendance. Maybe we want to go send this many number of kids to conference. What are some things that you specifically have been measuring with your group?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (08:04): So with my group in particular, one thing that we really want to get publicized and we're measuring out is our new platform, skills, USA connect. You're able to meet all national officers, state officers, endless opportunities with interviews, with people in your career field, such as doctors or surgeons and law enforcement, anything like that. And we're really just trying to publicize skills or say connect. So we meet monthly and talk about and how we can get it on social media networks and things such as that.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (08:35): Yeah, I think that's an excellent, excellent goal to, and especially to measure out and, you know, you want to say like, Oh, we want it on, you know, X number of networks. We want so many kids to watch it, or you're going to venture views I'm sure. And things like that. And it's so important because you want to, you know, the effort that you're putting in, you want that exposure for that program, because you know, when a is exposed to those environments or those careers, you know, they can make a decision early on, you know, all, that's something that I really, really want to pursue. I'm really, really going to take the time I'm going to sacrifice for that, or they could learn, Oh, that's something that I definitely don't want to do. And so can you tell us some of your experience, I know I wanted to ask this like a special one since you have your own bakery what is it like to have to own your own bakery?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (09:20): It's super exciting. I actually just launched it about a week ago. So it's really fun. I'm getting a lot of orders in is something that I definitely have to time manage because I am working and I'm still a fulltime student, so it's so much fun. I have my own creativity that customers trust me with. They let me choose a lot of flavors that they never had before. And I do a lot of marble designs. So that's really fun for me to just try different creative things and just really get it out there.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (09:47): Awesome. Awesome. I love it. And of course your favorite was funfetti. We already learned that earlier. I'm a red velvet person in particular or chocolate with the cream cheese frosting is like my favorite stuff. But can you tell us about, you know, when you found out that you made the regional officer or like now you're one of the national officers basically. Right. So how did that feel when you found that out, that your campaign and all those things? Like what, what does that moment like when you found that out?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (10:17): So when I found out that I won nationals, I was so excited. I was with my family, everything was virtual, of course, because of the pandemic. So we all celebrated online. It was on the skills USA platform on Instagram. So we were so excited. I was just texting all of my friends and my state director was texting me. I was just filled with enthusiasm.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (10:38): Awesome. And so what was the reaction of your parents when your friends received that textbook? Were they so proud? Did you start to cry? Was your mom, your dad or family members, someone crying. Were they happy? I know if I was there, I'd probably be pushing you real hard or something.

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (10:52): Yes, my mom actually, she pushed me so hard and my cousins were all together. So everyone was just super duper excited. My advisor called me, she was crying. One of my closest friends was crying because she knew how badly I wanted this. So it's just a really emotional day, but it was so exciting. I was just so happy.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (11:11): Would you say was one of the things that really made your campaign stick out? What, what are some specific actions that you were doing that if, like, if you were to give someone a tip for next year to put into their campaign, what would you tell them?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (11:22): Cool. Okay. So I would have to say reaching out to the members themselves, like the delegates don't make yourself too. Don't come across as like desperate that you want to win so bad, but just get your name out there. Let them know that. Hi, I'm Eliana. I'm running to be a national officer candidate. I really want to work with you, get to know your state, see what I can do. Just try to become their friend, because at the end of the day, they're going to be people that you have to represent. So it's better to get them, know them, to get to know them now. So can know what kind of person they are, how can you help their slow association.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (11:57): Awesome. Now, can you tell everyone, what are some of the duties that have been different now that you've been a national officer? What is the, like a day in the life of something different that you've done?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (12:06): So as national officer, I'm very busy. One thing that I have to do a lot is long meetings in the summer. I had an eight hour meeting. So that was kind of like you have to prioritize and time management, other things I've done is had region one conferences where I'm able to meet with all 11 States in reach and bond, just to get to know them, what I can do for their state, how I can help them, especially during the pandemic. Another thing is national office. We're able to travel. We're able to just get our names really out there within the schools we say, community and Korean tech education.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (12:43): Awesome. Awesome. I love it now. Aside from that moment where everyone's calling you and they're crying and your mom's pushing you, taking you cause you won the election. Can you tell us what has been your favorite moment of being in the leadership?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (12:58): My favorite moment or favorite part about being in student leadership definitely would be having this platform that I'm able to represent thousands of people. I don't think about national office or a school just saying as a time for me to boast about myself, but I love the fact that I have this platform that students can feel comfortable enough to share their stories of me say, Hey, I want to improve on this skill. How can I do it? And I can go back to the national team and the executive director and say, hi, Ms. Chavez, we have to improve on this or let's do this to help the members. I love having this kind of a platform.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (13:33): Awesome. Awesome. I love it. Now, can you tell me about how some of the people around you? I know when you get to be around all that network, it's, it's not just you, but there's other national officers and all of you are elite leaders. What was it like to be working with other kids that have great energy or they're very encouraging. It's very exciting. Can you tell us about some of the, the partnerships that you've been able to have with the other students?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (13:56): Absolutely. So it's so warming it's and all that. Although we have never met in person or the fact that everything's virtual and we all live in different States, we're like a family. We talk almost every single day. We're all super duper close and still supportive. If I'm overwhelmed within assignment, I know I can reach out to an officer and we'll get through it together. If I have a question or someone has a question we can help one another and break it down in a way that we can understand.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (14:21): Yeah. I think that that's so important to have that mastermind and have people around you that are gonna help you to accomplish that goal. You know what I mean? And now I want to ask, so those are the people that are out there. I'm gonna, I'm going to put your Instagram on, but is that the best way for people to find you or for, to connect with you? What's the best way to reach you as an email Tik TOK? How can they best more information from you?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (14:43): Definitely. So on my Instagram I'm always on Instagram with as much as I could be. I love to just talk to people and see what's going on in the, so my Instagram, I don't have really a Tik TOK that I post on it. I just like to scroll on the, for you page. So definitely reach out to me on my Instagram. I'd love to hear from all of you.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (15:01): Awesome. Now what is your favorite quote and how have you applied it to leadership?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (15:07): So my favorite quote would have to be from my friend. His name is Milan. He passed away. His quote was if you can believe that you can achieve it. And I apply that to my everyday life because truly that's what I live by. I jumped to being a national officer from the day I was chosen to run for it. And I believe that I could do it. I put in that hard work, that dedication and that passion, and then I did it. So that's the quote that I live by in my everyday life.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (15:32): Awesome. Awesome. I absolutely love that. That's a great, and especially the way you talked about it, you know, you had goals and you're dreaming it, you believed it. And then now you get to experience the actually, you know, you'll accomplish those goals, you accomplish your dreams, that vision that you had when you were first thinking about running, you know, now you're already here, you're leading help leading the region. I think you said it's 11 States. You know, how many thousands of members that, that are really, you know, you get to represent, you get to embody leadership and you get to show them how to, you know, push for all the things that you're talking about. You know, putting that event where you all are spreading all those career exposure to all the students. What are your college and career plans or like, what do you want to be when you grow up? Do you want to continue the bakery? Is that your, your dream and your vision?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (16:16): So, no, actually since I'm a senior, now I have to spend all my college jobs. And so working on doing so a little hesitant because I have so much stuff I want to include, but not a lot of space. I do want to become a physician and specialized in emergency medicine. I love baking, but it's mostly just a hobby of mine. It's something I'm passionate about. I like to do in my free time, but pursuing a career in medicine is my job.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (16:39): Awesome. Awesome. I love it. I've had many friends who work in the medical department and right now we're experiencing, you know, you know, such a big need. And so it's, it's great, you know, you're servicing people, you're helping people who, you know, very often you're talking about emergencies, they're, this is like their most desperate moments. So that's, I think a great goal. And then it'll provide you well, financial experiment. It's just a great goal to, to do that now. This is the part where I kind of puts you on the spot. So I'm gonna take myself off the screen. I normally cut this part off. So you may want to re-introduce yourself. Tell them maybe some of your accomplishments and then jumped into some advice that you would give a challenge to other students out there on how to be successful, how to be a better leader. So I'm gonna put myself on mute and take myself off of view. And I'm going to give you when I give you the thumbs up, that'll be when you can get started. Okay?

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SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (17:30): Okay. Thank you. Hi everyone. So my name is Aliana Maren. I currently serve as the national regional vice president for SkillsUSA. And I'm so excited to meet all you a few things about me. I currently serve on the department of elementary and secondary education from Massachusetts advocating for career and technical education, which is truly my passion. I work in the medical office at a pediatric office, and I also own my own bakery. I do all of this and I still have time to do things that I love and enjoy. One thing I really want to challenge each and every one of you is that whatever you want to do in life, whatever it may be, how much, how big or small, whatever you think, GO FOR IT. I challenge you to get that fire within you and just strive for success. Don't let any hardships, any negative thoughts. (18:30): Anyone tell you that you can't do it to stop you. You can do whatever you want to do. And look, we all have 24 hours within a day. That's enough time to accomplish anything you want to no excuses take control of your situation and make your life the Lake. You've drunk them. Look at yourself 10 years from now and say, wow, I didn't. I accomplished my dreams. This is my challenge for all of you. Let me know how it goes. You can reach me on Instagram at Aliana dot or Aliana Martin, whatever platform you'd like, just reach out to me. I love to hear your stories

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (19:19): Myself. That was absolutely awesome. I'm so glad that you shared that. That was so, so good. And so I could see why, you know, you've done so well. I could see how you've been such a great leader, and then the way you talk about things about serving others, going forward accomplishing those dreams and believing in yourself such great, great advice. Thank you so much for being a guest. So what I do with this is I'll put it on a, it'll go raw. It'll go like in, full on YouTube and on Facebook. And then I cut it up into a little challenge that gets to go out as part of, you know, when I go speak onstage places. I do it as a free gift to all the people or the people they get. Other people that get my newest book, the student leadership playbook they get it as like a free gift of three bonus. So thank you so much for participating in that. Do you have any questions for me?

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (20:08): Well, first, thank you so much, Jonathan, for having me. This is amazing. I'm so, so appreciative for you reaching out to me. My question for you is you're an amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing spokesperson and motivator for students in leadership success. How did you do it?

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (20:25): Well for me kind of like what you just said going forward. I used to run a big organization we've I was responsible for about an area about 80 schools and we'd have about 200 something kids going to camp every year. And I would be the one raising the money and pushing the organization. And then I hired a speaker one day and he started getting me to go speak at schools with him. I primarily go and speak at schools. And I was reluctant. I didn't want to share my story. I was kind of a reluctant leader in that aspect. And one day he got me to share my story and the kid, the students responded and one little boy came up to me and his mom had just died of a drug overdose. And he told me that my story inspired him to be a leader, but not just a leader in a school, but a leader in his family because he was a second oldest son.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (21:10): So he was like, Oh, even though my family had experienced that hardship, I'm going to go and be a leader and push my younger siblings to become leaders. And so that was like, okay, it's not about me. It's not about my story. It's about or army. I was ashamed of my story at the time. And so I was like, it's not about me and my story being ashamed of it. It's about how I can go and help others. And so I'm so proud and to see that, that students just like you are going and leading and pushing others to, to do that, to go forward, to chase their dreams. And so I got started speaking mostly at schools and the, now I've gotten to do thousands of events all across the country to go from being that scared. I was scared to share my story now, you know, over a million students, parents and educators have heard my story across the United States. And before the pandemic, I was supposed to have some international events. So I was going to do some events in Mexico. But that, that didn't happen after all, but you know, it's such a proud journey to be here and to now be in partnership with students, just like you all across the country.

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (22:10): That's amazing. I love that. I'm so glad that you got out of your comfort zone, like you said, and just shared your story because it's so inspiring and it's like motivating to see how passionate you are about public speaking and just helping other students. I love it.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (22:23): Yes, yes. And so anything you, you ever need, anything you want from me? Just message me. I'm here to serve you. Or if you see that, you know, maybe when you see the challenge that you want to connect with some of the other leaders that maybe are not even the skills USA, but you want to connect with some of the other national officers that I've interviewed. I would love to connect you with them and just build this, this movement. I considered a movement of student leadership where we're all coming together. We're all impacting the community for the better. And so I'm proud of you and all the great work that you're doing and how you all at skills USA are going and creating new leaders over and over and over. Cause I think leadership is all about the impact that you'll make on others. So thank you for stepping up, accepting that challenge and now challenging all the other students who are going to get to watch this.

SkillsUSA National Vice President Aliyana (23:09): Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much on it. And again, I really appreciate it.

Jonathan Medina "America's #1 Youth Motivator" (23:14): Yes. And will you have a wonderful, wonderful evening? I'm sure you have a ton of baking to do cause it's the holidays, extra, extra requests. Thank you so much for sacrificing and taking the time to share on this platform. Thank you so much. Thank you so much and have a great day. This ma'am you are a CHAMPION!