AWS Student Builder Group Leader to be recognized on Engineering Day.
The story of how being an AWS Student Builder Group Leader — built around the everyday life of an office administrator — led me to be recognized alongside researchers with global impact and professors who have spent decades shaping engineers.
AWS Student Builder Group Leader · UCASAL, Salta, Argentina Friday, June 5, 2026 · Main Auditorium, Castañares Campus · Engineering Day in Argentina
My day follows the same rhythm. Eight hours as an administrative worker at the office. Then university. And when night comes, before resting, the time I give to the group: planning the next workshop, thinking about how to explain an AWS concept more clearly, figuring out how to help someone who's struggling finally understand.
Nobody asked me to. Nobody paid me for it. I did it because I wanted to.
"Between the office, university, and AWS Student Builder Group*, I learned something no course had ever taught me: the knowledge that transforms you most is the knowledge you give away."*
What a typical day looked like
That was the pace throughout the year. Not a complaint — just context. Because what you build under those conditions carries a different kind of weight. It didn't come from free time or a scholarship. It came from a daily decision to prioritize something I believed in.
What was built in that borrowed time
As AWS Student Builder Group Leader at UCASAL, that year brought real challenges and genuine joy. I organized workshops and brought cloud technology to people who had never had any contact with AWS before. I supported classmates who faced technical barriers in their studies, always looking for ways to make accessible what seemed distant. I implemented concrete projects. I connected the university with the AWS ecosystem. And I met people who changed me — people who pushed me and challenged me, who taught me that leading isn't about knowing more, but about creating the space for others to learn too.
You don't truly know what you know until you have to teach it. In that space — explaining something to someone who needs it — knowledge becomes real. And you discover you've learned far more than you realized.
I also achieved something that fills me with particular pride: the institution began giving greater visibility to student groups that form out of pure passion — no formal structure, no funding, no reason other than wanting to learn and share.
The message I never saw coming
The day before the Academic Ceremony for Engineering Day in Argentina, I received this:
"Good afternoon Misael, how are you? I'm reaching out first and foremost to congratulate you and invite you to participate virtually in the Engineering Day ceremony we're holding tomorrow, Friday June 5th at 6 PM. We'd like to give you a small recognition as part of the event, and if you're up for it, I'd love for you to share in 2 or 3 minutes what your participation in AWS Student Builders was about."— School of Engineering, UCASAL. Invitation from Dean Mg. Ing. Guillermina R. Nievas.
I read it several times. Precisely because I had never done any of this expecting it.
The ceremony and what I felt
The Academic Ceremony for Engineering Day at UCASAL carries real weight. Presided over by Dean Mg. Ing. Guillermina R. Nievas, the event at the Main Auditorium of the Castañares Campus brought together national and international academic figures. Professors were honored for research with global impact. Distinguished faculty were recognized for decades of dedication. Outstanding students were celebrated for exceptional academic records and technically sophisticated, socially impactful projects.
And among all of them, there I was. Connected by video call from home, as AWS Student Builder Group Leader. At the end of a day that had started at 8 in the morning at the office.
There is something particular about receiving recognition you never sought. You have nowhere to hide the emotion. There's no strategy behind it. Only the quiet realization that doing something well — honestly, without calculating — sometimes, not always but sometimes, the world notices.
"Without having expected anything. That's exactly why it meant everything."
For anyone still hesitating
If you're thinking about joining an AWS Student Builder Group , or leading one, or organizing your first workshop after a long day of work and classes: do it. What you'll learn by teaching has no equivalent. And what you'll build in others has no price.
I was invited to speak on Engineering Day, alongside researchers with global impact and professors who have spent decades training professionals. From home. On a video call. After eight hours at the office, university, and the group.
With my eyes shining and my heart full.
Misael Calisaya — AWS Student Builder Leader Group UCASAL · Salta, Argentina
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