10 min read
For the Guerreros, LSE runs in the family! Our Student Ambassador Omar attended Summer School in 2023, after his sisters Ana Sofia and Ana Cecilia both attended in 2022 and 2021. What was even more amazing to hear was that his parents Anabel and Omar studied for their postgraduate degrees at LSE in 1996, shortly after getting married. We decided to sit down with the family to hear about their experience of LSE, and to find out what keeps bringing them back!
Omar
Omar attended Summer School in 2023, taking EC102: Introductory Macroeconomics, and was selected to be a Student Ambassador. He currently studies at Tecnologico de Monterrey, majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering.
What about LSE made you want to study here?
I wanted to study at LSE because I had heard positive things from friends and family who had attended before me. They said that their social and educational experiences at LSE were out of this world, and I wanted to experience this for myself. Also, because so many of my family members attended LSE, I wanted to study here to feel part of the family legacy.
What was the highlight of your experience?
A real highlight for me was going out after the lectures to eat and walk around London. It was so fun to get to know the iconic city we were studying in and to create memories with new friends. Also, I got to try different cuisines from all over the world, as London offers a multicultural dining experience.
How did LSE help you get to where you are now?
It helped me to achieve and exercise greater academic discipline, not only to pass the class but to get the most out of the whole experience. I also have developed my analytical skills, which has helped me both at university and in my personal life.
What would be your best piece of advice to future students?
Enjoy it and find a balance between social and academic life. Don't let school consume you and take all of your time, as you will miss out on everything London has to offer. Nevertheless, it is essential to remember why you are at LSE and for social life not to take up all your attention. You should enjoy the best of both worlds!
Ana Cecilia
Omar’s older sister Ana Cecilia also attended LSE Summer School, in 2022 and 2021, taking MG110: The Science and Art of Decision Making and MG103: Consumer Behaviour: Behavioural Fundamentals for Marketing and Management respectively. She now works as a dance teacher while completing the final year of her degree.
What about LSE made you want to study here?
Ever since I was a little girl I´ve known about LSE. I do not associate it with school or a title, but with family. My parents did their master’s degrees at LSE right after they got married; even though I never wanted to study law or economics (their master’s degrees) I always knew I wanted to attend.
I grew up hearing about their wonderful time, how they achieved their dreams by attending LSE, and I knew I wanted to feel part of their dream and to taste what they had back then.
What was the highlight of your experience?
Even though I didn´t have the “normal” LSE experience, as my whole family was enrolled at Summer School (a teenage nightmare), I wouldn´t change a thing. I got to study abroad, make a lot of international friends, with the added cosiness of having my family around and in a city that has always felt like home to me. I had the opportunity to learn from very important and experienced professors and from my classmates’ experiences too, and I had the chance to be in new situations and contexts that help me develop new skills and develop my knowledge and learning. But most importantly I had the chance to understand the dream my parents lived many years ago.
How did LSE help you get to where you are now?
Having the chance to experience something new gives you the opportunity to reflect and question your everyday life. It is a blank space and a fresh breath of perspective that either strengthens your principles or helps you make the changes you need. For me personally, attending LSE was a dream come true, and has helped me enormously. At first, I thought attending LSE was all about getting something impressive for my academic transcript. Looking back now at my time at Summer School, I think I gained more than just my grade. I gained self-esteem, friends and experience, and I got to share my parents dream with them.
What would be your best piece of advice to future students?
My advice to future students would be to always stay true with one’s principles and to always enjoy the important things in life. Never lose sight of your true joys and priorities - if you always stick to these, everything will work out.
Ana Sofia
The eldest daughter of the Guerrero family, Ana Sofia, is currently in her last year at university and is working for a law firm in Mexico City. She attended Summer School twice, taking LL203: International Commercial Litigation and Arbitration in 2022, and LL204: The Foundations of AI Law and Regulation and LL105: International Law: Contemporary Issues in 2021.
What about LSE made you want to study here?
If I could define why I wanted to study at LSE in one word, it would be "quality". Ever since I was a child, my parents would tell me how LSE had changed their lives. They would tell me all about their experience studying for exams, managing their time and the pressures of university. I wanted to have this intense and rewarding experience just like my parents had. Academically, LSE offers various courses in very interesting topics which are taught by high-quality professors. The seminars and lectures centred around open dialogue, peer to peer discussion, and active participation, which was enriching. In addition, LSE has enviable facilities; the classrooms, the library and the London campus make for a fulfilling experience.
What was the highlight of your experience?
The highlight of my experience was meeting so many open minded people at LSE. At Summer School, you meet people from around the world who have dreams and are preparing to fulfil those dreams. For this reason, you find yourself in a creative, innovative, and challenging environment. The highlight of this environment was the motivational effect it had on my life because I got out of my comfort zone. I met fascinating people, from professors to friends, who served as inspiration.
How did LSE help you get to where you are now?
I took three courses at LSE Summer School, which were all very different from each other but incredibly interesting. LSE gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to express my ideas. This confidence allowed me to study new things that interested me, even though they were not in my school's curriculum, which led me to win the Best Speaker at the Oral Hearings at the Moot UP-ICC in 2021 – I would not have been able to enter without this newly developed confidence and the skills LSE gave me. LSE was a critical factor in my life, and for that, I am very grateful.
What would be your best piece of advice to future students?
LSE Summer School courses are designed in such a way that you can use many skills. First, you develop comprehension and analysis skills through readings and seminars with your peers, communication skills from discussion groups and a combination of all of these through the assessment. Therefore, you must prepare for the lectures and seminars, and be ready to use all of your skills. I would suggest keeping all the class materials and notes orderly because they can be beneficial when writing your end of course essay. Also, I would treasure the relationships you build at LSE, both professors, teaching assistants and other students. Finally, have fun and enjoy all the activities London has to offer.
Anabel
Anabel is the matriarch of the Guerrero family, and spent time at LSE studying for her Master’s in Management in 1996-7. She also attended LSE Summer School in 2022, along with her daughters, studying MG250: Management and Economics of Digital Innovation. Now, she lives in Mexico with her family and works as a Professor of Economics at Universidad Iberoamericana and Universidad Anáhuac.
What about LSE made you want to study here?
At first, LSE was a dream for Omar (my husband) and for me. We had the chance to live in London, to study at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, to learn from top academics, to meet people from all over the world and be part of a worldwide community.
Later, LSE became a family dream. My three kids grew up listening to our stories about LSE - how much we studied, the methods we used to face the pressure for the exams, the people we met while living there and how happy we were.
It was wonderful when finally, the three of them became LSE students. The greatest part was that we were all able to be LSE students together – in the summer of 2021, we all went to London and visited LSE. In fact, my husband Omar and my oldest daughter, Sofia, were classmates on the same Summer School course!
It was such an amazing experience that we repeated the experience in 2022. Every time, it has been different, enjoyable and enriching.
What was the highlight of your experience?
We have received so much from LSE. We are grateful for every experience, challenge, and opportunity, and the idea that we all are made for long life learning.
One highlight for me is that LSE became part of our family story, the best family memory and the greatest family dream.
Coming back to LSE as a Summer School student, after 25 years, was the greatest gift of all. It was an overwhelming avalanche of fresh ideas, learnings and trends coming from my teachers, materials, classmates and London itself.
How did LSE help you get to where you are now?
Of course, LSE has been an essential part of my professional life — first, working in the industry; later, and more importantly, as a professor. LSE´s credentials speak for themselves as a synonym for academic excellence, tremendous critical thinking, creativity, hard work, and strong work ethic.
After studying at LSE, people were curious about my year there and my academic achievements. After my summer at LSE, people were excited to hear about my challenges as a Summer School student and the new ideas I brought with me.
What would be your best piece of advice to future students?
I would encourage you to dream big, as studying at LSE is a privilege and an honour.
Also, be open to everything LSE and your classmates have to offer. And, please, enjoy the process.
Omar Sr.
Last, but not least, Omar is the patriarch of LSE’s favourite family, and studied at LSE in 1996-7 with his wife, taking his Master’s in Law (LLM). With the rest of his family, he attended Summer School in 2021, taking LL204: The Foundations of AI Law and Regulation. He now works as an attorney in Mexico City, having been a partner at his firm since 2000.
What about LSE made you want to study here?
Immediately after we got married (August 1996), my wife and I enrolled to LSE to pursue our master’s degrees. Anabel (Msc) and I (LLM) graduated in 1997 with merits. It was a dream come true to study at LSE, with the best professors possible in an academic environment that fostered hard-work, critical thinking and innovative ideas. Since we left LSE, we have tried to return every year to London and our three kids have grown up knowing that LSE has been part of our life. Our kids have joined Anabel and I in attending LSE Summer School courses after the pandemic which has been a wonderful experience.
What was the highlight of your experience?
My highlight has been that my entire family were able to participate in the LSE experience: my wife Anabel, my kids Ana Sofía, Ana Cecilia and Luis Omar and I have taken summer courses at LSE as of 2021. For instance, in 2021 Ana Sofía and I were classmates at the extraordinary LL204 summer course with Professor Andrew Murray, Dr Orla Lindskey, et al. My three kids and wife have enrolled in summer courses every year and I hope to be able to enrol soon in another one. LSE is an intrinsic part of the Guerrero family.
How did LSE help you get to where you are now?
I have practiced law as a licensed attorney for the last 31 years. I have been at my firm (Hogan Lovells – México) for the last 31 years. I have been a partner of the firm since 2000. For the last 3 years (2021-2024) I have been the OMP (Office Manager Partner) of the Mexican offices. I have been recognised as a leading practitioner in arbitration, litigation and competition law for almost a decade now. I firmly believe that LSE has been a fundamental part of these achievements. I am not a native-speaker and my English improved exponentially thanks to LSE. Arbitration and competition law were two of my examined subjects at LSE. I also taught European Union law at a couple of law schools in México for a few years, and during this, I was able to use what I learnt at LSE to promote the interaction between law and technology. In my everyday life, I try to represent LSE - my laptop has an LSE sticker on it, and I have an LSE key ring! I am simply a proud LSE alum. I would love to take a sabbatical and study with Professor Andrew Murray, Professor Pablo Ibañez Colomo, Dr Orla Linskey and several other LSE icons of innovative teaching. I simply love LSE, and the fact that my wife and kids look forward to studying every summer at LSE is a testament to what it means to us.
What would be your best piece of advice to future students?
I’d like to share what Christine Lagarde shared in her 2022 LSE welcome message. She said that there are three characteristics integral to the LSE journey: (i) curiosity, (ii) courage and (iii) commitment. I would encourage future LSE students to be passionate about what matters to them. Make sure you embrace the opportunities that come your way, and don’t be afraid of them. You never know what might spark your curiosity, and where that might lead you. LSE is home to me, and that is the reason I have brought my wife and family to be part of it. Being a part of LSE is an honour and a privilege. I simply love my alma mater!