Hera Rising, Kids Rising—Some Rides Change You Forever
4,300 miles. Six countries. One mission: to inspire. But the road doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t just let you hand out inspiration like postcards. It makes you earn every mile, every moment. It flips the script when you least expect it. I came to share the Hera Rising story, to talk about STEAM, to encourage kids to dream bigger. Instead, they were the ones who cracked something open in me.
Instituto Alfred Binet – Puebla, Mexico
Puebla was the first stop, and Instituto Alfred Binet set the bar high. Two classes, two waves of eager young minds. These kids weren’t just listening—they were challenging, pushing, asking sharp, sometimes uncomfortably brilliant questions. Doctors, engineers, artists, scientists, soccer stars. Not one of them saw their future as anything less than extraordinary. And why should they? In their world, STEAM wasn’t some abstract concept—it was the way forward. It was written in their eyes, in their words, in the way they carried themselves. They weren’t just thinking about changing their own futures. They were thinking about changing “the” future.
Learn more about Instituto Alfred Binet
Sibilia, Guatemala – More Than a Detour
Sibilia wasn’t on my original map, but maps don’t tell the whole story. This was personal. This was home—at least in the way that some people become your home, no matter where you are. Clemencia Bonilla was our family for 16 years. More than that. A sister, a protector, a presence who made life work when we had no real family of our own close by.
So, I remember promising to one day visit her hometown. And that one day happenED to catch up with me on my ride for equality.
Street vendor and worker, Sibilia.
I went to meet her beautiful mother, Aurora. To sit at a table with her boyfriend’s family, a household where warmth wasn’t just emotional—it was literal, coming off a steaming plate of Pepián de Pollo, my favorite Guatemalan dish. They didn’t know I had skipped breakfast and lunch, running on nothing but adrenaline and a hope that maybe—maybe—there would be a Pepián waiting for me. And there it was! Because life has a way of serving you exactly what you need when you least expect it.
The best Pepián. Made wiTH love by Mila on her U’k’ux’já, a type of smokeless wood burning stove.
Humberto’s family, it turns out, is full of teachers. One of them heard what I was doing with Rising United and made a call. Just like that, I found myself standing in the middle of a basketball court full of students at Instituto Privado Mixto Sibilia—Inprimisi, telling them about a woman who’s about to jump from the edge of space and break every record in the book. The look in their eyes told me they understood. Barriers were made to be broken. Even theirs.
A School That’s Changing Lives – EDELAC, Quetzaltenango
The next morning, The Pearl and I rumbled into EDELAC - La Escuela de la Calle, an organization dedicated to kids who’ve had to fight for every bit of education they get. The kind of place where passion is a survival skill, where school director Guadalupe Pos and his team of teachers don’t just educate—they protect, advocate, fight for these kids like they’re their own.
This wasn’t just a school. It was a lifeline.
The kids had stories written all over. Heavy ones, I imagined. But they also had something else: an energy, a belief, a raw hope that refused to be put out. When they sat on The Pearl, something shifted. Even the quiet ones, the ones who stood at the back, hesitant—they opened up. Maybe it was the size of the bike, OR maybe it was the idea of movement, of endless possibilities. Maybe it was just a machine giving them permission to dream. Whatever it was, it was there. It was real.
The Lesson I Didn’t Expect
I rode 2,700 miles hoping to spark something in at least one kid, hoping to plant the idea that they could go further, reach higher. But the truth is, they were the ones who sparked something in me.
I saw it in their faces. In their dreams, spoken out loud without hesitation. I came to remind them that no dream is too big. They reminded me to believe it.
So, I’ll keep riding. Keep pushing. Keep pulling up to schools, colleges, villages—anywhere kids are daring to dream. Because they showed me something I can’t unsee: the raw power of possibility. And that kind of lesson? You don’t just walk away from it. You ride with it. You carry it forward. You let it fuel the next mile, the next conversation, the next chance to inspire. Because when we ride united, we rise united.
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