Jazmín Chi: the woman who builds bridges between success and the human heart

 Today, from China—where she balances international business with humanitarian projects—Jazmín opens her heart in this interview. She speaks about purpose-driven leadership, about falls that teach us how to fly, and about why true wealth is measured in smiles and transformed lives.

 1. You have said that “respect and attentiveness are the foundation of everything.” How have you managed to preserve that humanity in a business world that sometimes rewards coldness?

 Being true to oneself is, in fact, one of the bravest decisions there is. Over the years, I’ve come to understand that above any achievement, what truly matters remains the essential: sharing time with those you love, living with presence, being grateful for what you have, and carefully nurturing the bonds that sustain us.

 I come from a country immensely rich in culture, talent, and heart, but also deeply marked by social wounds. Growing up and being shaped in an environment permeated by violence confronted me very early on with the fragility of life, awakening in me a more human, more compassionate, and more responsible consciousness.

 Supporting my family amid difficult contexts—protecting one another, staying united, and choosing love over fear—gave me clarity about what is truly valuable. Today, after everything I’ve lived through, my greatest strength is not only what I have built, but the peace we have managed to preserve as a family: our ability to care for one another and to continue believing in life without losing tenderness.

 In the business world, I have learned that one can lead with firmness without losing sensitivity, make decisions with clarity without renouncing empathy, and grow without ceasing to be human. For me, respect, honesty, and attentiveness are a way of life.

 2. Your foundation reflects your commitment. What moment or story made you say, “This is what I work for”?

 When I understood, through my own family history, that education has the power to rewrite destinies. My parents grew up in contexts of profound material scarcity, yet with immense wealth in dreams, dignity, and values. My father worked from a young age in physically demanding trades; my mother worked in domestic service. Both understood something essential: that values, knowledge, and honest work were the only inheritance capable of breaking cycles.

 Thanks to that conviction, my father became a physician and my mother a nurse. From a young age, they instilled in me that education, accompanied by values, not only transforms the mind—it transforms life itself.

 On my own path, I went through deeply difficult experiences that tested my identity, my faith in myself, and my vision of the future. At a very young age, I was forced to make decisions that accelerated my maturity and confronted me with immense responsibility. Becoming a mother marked a turning point in my story: it was the moment when I stopped doubting myself and began a profound process of inner reconstruction.

 For years, I worked intensely on my academic, emotional, and human formation: I changed habits, healed wounds, strengthened my character, and redefined my purpose. That process transformed me completely.

 Today I work in this field because I know, from lived experience, that education not only opens opportunities—it saves lives and transforms entire realities and generations. Because I want to be a bridge so that millions of people discover that, even when the starting point is complex, there is always a possible path. It is not easy; it requires extraordinary effort, but when you pay the price of believing and growing, life responds.

 3. You have mentioned that “a leader also cries.” How did you transform your own vulnerabilities into strengths for your team?

 I have cried many times. As a poet once wrote, “eyes that have been bathed in tears shine with a purer, clearer light.” For many years, I faced judgments, doors that did not open, and inequalities that are not always visible from the outside. There were moments when my fragility was misinterpreted, and my need was used against me. More than once, I was denied value before I could even show what I was made of.

 But life, in its quiet way of teaching, led me to understand that I could no longer wait for external validation to recognize my own dignity. I then decided to create my own path. Years of deep inner work followed—therapy, emotional reconstruction, learning to tell my story without remaining trapped in the wound.

 I have always believed that when a door does not open, one can build one’s own building. And that is what I did, with patience, with faith, and with many invisible foundations. Today I have schools, a publishing house, and a foundation that impact thousands of lives, and that makes my eyes shine with joy. Everything I build is grounded in the values with which I grew up, because I am convinced that true leadership is not imposed; it is exemplified in every decision, every interaction, and every team.

 4. What has this country (China) taught you about balancing economic growth with social responsibility?

 China taught me that true growth is born from shared effort, consistency, and a vision that thinks in generations, not just immediate results. I feel deeply connected to its history, not only because of my family roots, but because of its extraordinary process of collective transformation.

 For a long time, as with many nations, an incomplete image of this country has been spread. But those who know it closely discover a China that is profoundly innovative, technological, disciplined, and above all, committed to developing its people through education.

 China reminded me of something essential: when a society invests consistently in its human capital, transformation is not a distant promise—it is an inevitable reality. And the same is true at a personal level. For years, I dedicated myself to healing, growing, studying, and rebuilding myself from the deepest place. Today, the fruits of that process not only transform my life, but also reach thousands of people through our foundation and our companies.

 I firmly believe that economic growth, when not accompanied by social transformation, remains incomplete. That is why I do not aspire to accumulate, but to flow—to be a channel, a living bridge that carries many toward new opportunities, toward broader, more dignified, and more human futures.

 5. Jazmín, in our conversation you have spoken about your deep commitment to education and social impact. But we know that your work has gone much further, taking you to many corners of the world. You were recognized as one of the 120 most innovative women in the world by the Athena40 Organization in its 2020 list; you were selected as a fellow by the United States Department of State in 2024 as a Young Leader of the Americas; you have received several Honorary Doctorates for your work; you have collaborated with Oscar winners Andrea Nix and Sean Fine on a commercial about the importance of education for Walden University; and you graduated with a full scholarship from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. How has this global reach helped strengthen your mission and vision, and how do you connect all these achievements with your personal purpose?

 I embrace every recognition I have received with deep gratitude and an open heart. But at its core, it has never been titles that moved me, but the lives we touch through the entire CHI ecosystem.

 Today we know that more than 18,000 people in countries such as Mexico, Morocco, Colombia, China, and Japan have been impacted by our programs, and that more than 30 alliances with stakeholders from the business, governmental, educational, social, and cultural sectors have allowed that impact to multiply. Yet even in the face of these numbers, I continue to see faces, stories, names, and hopes.

 Traveling to more than 50 countries has taught me that when human beings unite around an authentic purpose, changes cease to be individual and become collective movements. Borders dissolve, and love becomes the universal language.

 Recognitions amplify the voice, yes—but the mission remains intact: to continue opening paths through education, sowing opportunities where there was once only silence, and reminding ourselves that a single act of love can transform entire generations.

 6. Beyond recognitions, what would you like those who know you privately to say about you?

 Beyond any recognition, I would like those who know me privately to say that I try to live from love, coherence, and service. That is the center of my life and also of my motto: to spread love and wisdom around the world.

 If someone finds a bit of hope, comfort, or courage through what I do, I feel that my mission is being fulfilled. I do not aspire to be remembered for titles, but for the way I made people feel.

 And yes… I also hope they say that I love dogs deeply and immensely, because in their tenderness I always find a reminder of simple joy, unconditional love, and the beauty of what is essential.

 7. As a woman leader in traditionally male-dominated sectors, did you ever have to choose between being “strong” by the world’s standards or being faithful to your essence? How did you navigate that duality?

 Many times. On more than one occasion, the world presented that choice to me as a dilemma: to harden myself in order to survive or to remain faithful to my essence. Over time, I understood that this was a false dichotomy. True strength is not born of hardness, but of coherence with the soul.

 When a person renounces their essence in order to fit in, they do not become strong—they become deeply vulnerable. I chose to be authentic, even when that meant walking alone at times, swimming against the current, and holding my voice with softness amid the noise.

 Today I know that there is no greater act of courage than remaining whole in a world that constantly tries to shape you. And I also know that tenderness, empathy, and sensitivity are not weaknesses—they are elevated forms of courage.

 8. Among all your foundation’s projects, could you tell me about a moment when someone else’s smile made you feel, “This is worth everything”? What story lies behind it?

 There is a moment that repeats itself in almost all my conferences and that, no matter how many times it happens, never ceases to move me. At the end, women of all ages approach me to hug me. Some come with words, others only with tears. Many say nothing—and yet they give me everything. In those embraces there are stories, wounds, fears, longings, and also hope.

 Every time a woman cries in my arms, I confirm something that has accompanied me for years: the world needs more spaces of tenderness, of listening, of emotional healing. It needs us to remind women, girls, and young people that their value does not depend on anyone else—that they are worthy, loved, enough, and that their dreams matter.

 When I see a woman who arrived broken begin to walk with her head held high; when a young person dares, for the first time, to believe in herself; when someone achieves what they thought impossible for years—in that instant, everything makes sense. There, without a doubt, I know that everything has been worth the effort.

 Many times people tell me, “You changed my life.” And I, with deep humility, always respond the same way: it wasn’t me. It was them. I only showed them the reflection of what already lived inside them. The strength, the courage, and the voice were always theirs.

And every time I witness one of those awakenings of the soul, I repeat it silently, with a full heart: everything—absolutely everything—has been worth the effort.

 9. You have spoken about resilience, but what was your darkest night as a leader? And what did you learn from it that you now apply to lift others up?

 My darkest night was not a single one. It was a long journey. It was being an autonomous mother in a world that judges without knowing the full story; it was sustaining life with up to five jobs at once to cover the essentials; it was living with the constant choice between my own needs and those of my daughter—and always choosing my daughter. It was dreaming deeply while having to postpone those dreams because survival does not wait.

 It was also walking through a process where justice moves slowly, where pain sometimes seems to have no witnesses, and where silence weighs heavily. But even there, in the midst of that darkness, something within me remained lit: the certainty that my life would not end in the wound.

 I do not believe it was a single night of the soul, but rather an evolutionary process, step by step, layer by layer. In each stage, I released fears, broke mental chains, and recovered my voice. And I understood something essential: it is precisely in the darkness that character is forged, where one discovers what one is made of, where the impossible begins to become possible.

 I learned to transmute pain into purpose, to turn the wound into service, to transform the fall into a point of departure. And when that happens, everything changes: you begin to live with freedom, with meaning, and with a mission greater than yourself.

 Today, what I lived through does not weigh me down—it sustains me. Because I know that through my story, thousands of people can rediscover the voice they thought they had lost, the strength they believed they did not have, and the hope that there is always a new dawn, even after the longest night.