By Ines Kudo
At Tinkuy Marka Academy, leaders are not born; they are forged in the quiet moments of service, in the patience to explain something for the fifth time, in the courage to face your own weaknesses while helping someone else overcome theirs.
This is the essence of the Servant Leader badge: young people stepping forward, not for recognition, but to lift others higher. The badge is not about academics. It is about serving the community and practicing heroic habits in daily life. The badge description reads:
“Change is hard. Improving your character even harder. The Greek origin of the word character means ‘to etch.’ At Tinkuy Marka Academy, you will be encouraged to etch heroic habits more deeply into your character, acting like a Hero until you become one, and to ‘rub out’ victim-like habits that detract from your Hero’s Journey.
Your goal is to Etch more deeply the habits of a Hero and Rub out the habits of a Victim.”
The badge lists Victim versus Heroic habits, and Pumas choose one to practice daily. These include welcoming challenges, pursuing excellence, persevering through failure, or treating others with kindness and respect. They also commit to a community service role for a set number of hours, as long as their work earns positive feedback. This year, that service has meant mostly mentoring Discovery Pumas.
The process is structured and intentional. Each session, Ascend mentors ask their younger peers for feedback, receive a score, and write a reflection. The feedback is often blunt, and the reflections are full of honesty, vulnerability, and growth. That is where the real transformation happens.
Sofía discovered the power of teaching as a tool for her own learning. “Sometimes teaching is the best way to learn. And I proved it this session because I started to memorize my own techniques while explaining them. When I mentally solve the problems, I also learn.”
What began as tutoring became deeper mastery of her own skills, and even a shift in perspective. “When I mentored Vicentte, I saw him learn and be motivated. So I realized that gamification does work.”
Leyla noticed how much she needed to improve her focus to serve well. In earlier sessions she had been told she was too distracted. By Session 4, she was proud: “I did a better job. No feedback said I distracted others. I thought more about what my mentee needed.” She even learned new tools herself: “They showed me tricks in Google Docs, and now I have more organization tips to share.” Mentoring became a mirror for her own growth.
Camilo’s reflection shows his struggle with patience and empathy. “Helping younger studios is something you need to do. What is easy for you may be hard for them.” He learned patience: “They may not understand right away. I was tempted to give the answer, but I knew I had to guide, not do the work for them.” Mentoring taught him to adapt his methods to each learner. By serving younger Pumas and working to be patient and understanding, he is growing as a hero and a leader. He also learned to face his tendency to procrastinate and replace it with better habits.
Giulia confronted the challenge of patience directly. “I struggle with patience because I hate to explain a lot of times… but now I learned how to stay calm and be more kind.” She realized her kindness often fluctuated with her mood. “I would like to be kind all the time. Now that I know my mood is important for my kindness, I plan to be in a better mood so I can be kinder and help my fellows more.”
She also discovered the power of materials and games to engage younger learners. “Before, I brought games and books that were already in the studio and did games on the board, but it’s not the same as presenting a new, fun game with a purpose.” Handmade, playful tools made a real difference. At the same time, she learned about balance: “In week 3, we weren’t mentoring, just preparing materials, even though we knew we had to do double the hours because we were mentoring together.” This helped her reflect on managing time and energy wisely.
For Maitane, the badge was transformative. “I could literally tell that this badge was life changing for me.” She experienced how kindness changes both giver and receiver. “I learned how kindness can transform other people and yourself, and the importance of applying it to your everyday life.” Her community service as a math mentor gave her the joy of seeing her mentee succeed. “When Daniela advanced 4 skills in Khan, seeing how happy she was made me remember the moments when I needed help.” She concluded, “Both experiences changed my life and I think they made me grow as a person and as a leader.”
For Mayu, the badge was a chance to reflect on leadership. “After seeing some of my participations, I saw that some of the points had a wrong argument, or I didn’t agree with my own point of view. With my Civilization Leader role, I realized I should paraphrase questions in a way others can understand.” What could have been just another exercise became a road of discovery about humility and clarity.
The Discovery Pumas were equally clear with their feedback: “be more kind,” “concentrate more,” “you helped me a lot with grammar,” and “you explained with patience.” One mentee wrote, “I liked the tricks in math, but maybe don’t mentor two people at the same time, because it can be stressful.” Their voices were not filtered or softened. This honesty gave Ascend mentors the exact mirror they needed to grow.
Mistakes were not hidden. They were named, reflected on, and used as fuel for growth. Each mentoring session became a practice ground for responsibility, patience, humility, and perseverance.
What surprised us most was what came next. By watching Ascend Pumas mentor them, Discovery Pumas began asking for opportunities to mentor Spark. Seeing their older peers take responsibility awakened in them the desire to step into that same role with the younger ones.
This cycle, with Ascend serving Discovery and Discovery serving Spark, shows that heroic habits are contagious.
When an eleven-year-old writes, “Sometimes teaching is the best way to learn,” and a nine-year-old starts asking to mentor a four-year-old, we know something profound is happening. The culture of the tribe is multiplying. Learning is not just about personal growth. It is about becoming a hero for others.
In the end, the Servant Leader badge is a living expression of what we believe at Tinkuy Marka Academy: that true leadership is born in service, that character is etched through daily choices, and that the courage to lift others is the surest way to rise yourself.
When a community chooses to grow together in this way, the impact reaches far beyond the walls of the studio. It shapes the kind of humans who will step into the world ready to listen, to guide, and to lead with integrity. This is how heroes are made, one act of service, one moment of patience, one shared victory at a time.
