Shalini Arias Hurtado is among the 50 women under 40 who are changing the world

Mujerhoy magazine releases a new list of Generation NEXT every International Women's Day on March 8th to highlight the commitment to female talent and leadership. The list features 50 women, including managers, researchers, athletes, activists, and personalities from the art and culture industry. They all share their youth and a promising future, as they have already achieved impressive goals that inspire admiration. They are women who have overcome obstacles and challenges and are determined to continue pursuing successful careers without limits.

Among them IED Madrid alumna Shalini Arias Hurtado, a 25-year-old migration activist who works as Communications Event Manager at Ashoka Europe. She is responsible for Community and Youth in Spain for the organization that promotes social entrepreneurship. Arias understands what it feels like to be a refugee, having been adopted from India when she was only a year and a half old. She lived in Valdepeñas, Ciudad Real, with her mother until she moved to Madrid to study anthropology. Then, she realized "that the world was not that little bubble in which I had lived and that I was treated as if I were a migrant, although I didn't perceive myself as such". While studying in England, she made a short documentary about Syrian and Afghan refugees who arrived in Germany in 2015 following Angela Merkel's decision to open the borders. Through this experience, she realized the situation was not as easy as the media portrayed it.