Our Why

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Latina girls and young women are facing alarming rates of social isolation and declining confidence, impacting their mental well-being. Cultural stressors—such as discrimination, intergenerational conflict over gender roles, and a lack of school connectedness—compound these challenges. When left unaddressed, these experiences don’t just impact individual students; they lead to lower academic engagement, reduced participation in leadership opportunities, and long-term disparities in health and success. Educators want all students to thrive, yet many are overstretched or lack access to holistic, culturally sustaining training and tools to fully support Latina students in today’s learning environments.

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Our Method

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Sentipensante Connections is an educational consulting practice rooted in creativity, joy, cultura, and reciprocity. Through our signature Sentipensante Framework—grounded in liberatory pedagogy, arts-based healing practices, and a sociocultural approach to language—we guide educators through a transformative journey to reconnect with their creative force, deepening their capacity to lead students toward confidence, connection, and thriving. We honor the sentipensante approach—mind, body, and spirit—to teaching and learning as a transformative pathway to wholeness and leadership, allowing students and educators to experience magic, play, and love.

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Our Founder

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Dr. Vianney A. Gavilanes is a visionary educator, scholar, and creative practitioner transforming learning spaces into sanctuaries of creativity and empowerment. As the founder of Sentipensante Connections, she’s on a mission to interrupt practices of harm that cause isolation and disconnection for Latina girls and women by designing culturally sustaining, transformative, creative spaces where creativity, joy, and play become sources of wellness, confidence, and liberation. Sentipensante Connections builds on over a decade of experience in teaching and facilitation across secondary and higher education, including leading professional development for educators in participatory, arts-based research methods, and designing and implementing creative wellness programming that supports students’ mental well-being and educational engagement.

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Dr. Gavilanes bridges research and practice with a scholar’s mind and a corazón de poeta, guiding educators and leaders in developing the sentipensante mindset—sensibilities and predispositions—needed to engage in this transformational work. Her approach is rooted in rigorous academic research and lived practice, bridging critical pedagogy, creativity, and healing. Her work doesn’t just build programs—it builds brave spaces where students feel safe to share their stories and are encouraged to be in a state of joy and play that reconnects them to their creative force.

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If you want to co-create spaces where Latina students feel seen, heard, and affirmed, Dr. Gavilanes is the partner, thought leader, and creative catalyst you’ve been searching for.