As a wide-eyed undergraduate student yearning to learn more about the world around her, Gisele Laffont decided to take the plunge and apply for the Salzburg Global Seminar on Media and Global Change. She wasn’t entirely sure she would be accepted, yet her sister encouraged her to give it a shot, not realizing how much of an impact the program would have on Gisele’s mindset, professional trajectory, or network of friends. Twelve years later, Gisele looks back on the life-changing experience with a deep sense of gratitude, as she was one of a handful of students who were not only selected to attend the program but granted a competitive scholarship that made the experience possible. 

“The moment I finished that program and saw what it meant to me, I promised myself that the moment I could donate, I definitely would,” Laffont said. “I wish for the Salzburg Global Seminar to keep inspiring generations of change-makers, leaders, and young people from all around the world.”

While studying at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Argentina, Gisele’s focus was primarily on print journalism, which in 2009, had still managed to maintain a level of relevance before the onset of easily produced video. However, her experience at Salzburg Global Seminar provided a gateway into multimedia journalism that she had never seriously considered, giving her the confidence to pursue documentary filmmaking after completing the program. 

“If it hadn't been for Salzburg and my experience there, I would have never been able to even dare to sign up for that kind of project… I kind of fell in love with that multimedia way of telling stories and that impacted my entire career to this day,” she said.

As an industry marketing manager for global business at Facebook, Gisele greatly values the grounded sense of idealism the Salzburg Global provided her, which she says informs her everyday decision-making. What Salzburg Global offered her was more than an informative three-week learning experience, but rather a mindset shift that Gisele has carried with her in each professional setting she’s encountered. 

An exercise that Gisele credits as instrumental to forming her critical thinking process was E-monitor, a daily analysis of headlines from around the world, which gave her a more profound sense of the ability for media literacy to effect change, whether positive or negative.

“I think my eyes opened,” Laffont said. “I mean, not that I was a fool, but I just had this very innocent version of journalism as a force for good… I think that Salzburg Global taught me that there was so much more work that we needed to do if we wanted journalism to really be a force for good.”

Now, as not only an alumna of the Seminar but a former intern of the organization and committed advocate to global bridge-building, Gisele finds herself encouraging others to give back. In its effort to create a better world, Salzburg Global Seminar has played a vital role in identifying and cultivating curious minds and powerful voices from around the world, with Gisele undoubtedly being one of them.