Getting to know Yolanda
“I am Yolanda, and I strive to change the world by being myself.”
Yolanda’s role is to ensure that storerooms for Cenozoic Palaeontology and Taphonomy collections are maintained. She also manages administration in the designated collections according to specifications in the collections policy and the collections manual. Also, she handles the maintenance of collection data, including inventory, and other clerical tasks, and assists in the preparation, accessioning, and registration of new specimens and objects as required.
A typical day for Yolanda involves doing a physical check of all collections, which consists of a 5 minute check to rule out any hindrance to the collections as well as operational administration and maintenance of collection data as well as inventory updates.
Importance of collections: Yolanda believes that Cenozoic Palaeontology is important and inestimable because fossil studies show us how life, landscapes, and climate have changed over time and how living things responded to those changes. Her work has helped her learn that collections exist and that managing them requires dedication and commitment.
Yolanda as a young leader: Yolanda has discovered that leadership is a journey and not only something you learn from a book. She sees it as crucial and mandatory to learn it hands-on as well, and that is the only way for a leader-to-be to be able to develop. While she feels inadequate, she is looking forward to obtaining a new understanding of leadership and is planning to apply the newly acquired knowledge from the workshop to her everyday work, while acknowledging that she brings a unique perspective to the workshop.
Yolanda believes that it is important for young people to have younger role models—people they can identify with.
Preparation for the workshop:
“Being present mentally and physically.”