Melania Sanhueza: Leading with purpose of transforming education through emotional well-being
The Chilean entrepreneur and co-founder of Müud has driven a technological innovation that strengthens students’ emotional well-being and promotes a more empathetic and preventive school environment. Today, the tool developed in Chile supports more than 10,000 students and has expanded its impact to countries such as Spain, the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and India
The tool developed by Melania Sanhueza is currently being used in schools across Chile, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and India. Photo courtesy of Marca Chile.
As part of the partnership between UN Women and Marca Chile through the Chile, País de Mujeres initiative, this interview is featured in the #WomenLeadersForDevelopment campaign, which highlights women who are driving solutions to today’s major challenges through leadership, innovation and commitment to their communities. Melania Sanhueza is one of them. Her journey demonstrates how talent, vision and the ability to turn personal experiences into opportunities can generate change with both local impact and international reach, inspiring new generations of girls and young women to lead the future.
Great innovations often begin with a simple question: how can we improve people’s lives? For Melania Sanhueza, the answer was to make the emotions of children and adolescents visible within schools. Guided by that conviction, the Chilean entrepreneur led the development of a technological solution that is helping strengthen emotional well-being and improve school coexistence, demonstrating that innovation can also be a powerful tool for care and prevention
Her purpose goes beyond creating an application. “At Müud, we seek to help develop students who can exercise leadership in ways that are more empathetic and connected to the needs we face as a society in the 21st century,” she says
The platform allows students to record how they feel on a daily basis, enabling the early identification of those who may need support and providing educational communities with information to take preventive action
Leading from experience to transform education
Melania’s leadership journey was built on a combination of innovation, technology and a deep commitment to education. The inspiration for Müud emerged from an experience that profoundly shaped her family: her husband and current co-founder, Rodrigo, experienced bullying during his childhood and was ultimately expelled from school
“That experience led him to become a teacher so that no child would ever feel invisible in a classroom again. When we met, drawing on my background in innovation and educational technology, we realized that this was not just a problem but a shared responsibility,” she recalls
Driven by that conviction, Melania led the development of a solution that integrates emotional well-being into the daily school routine. The application encourages students to identify and name their emotions every day, strengthening skills such as self-awareness, self-regulation and emotional management
“We often say simply, ‘I feel bad,’ but it is very different to recognize whether we are feeling sad, frustrated or bored. When we learn to identify our emotions and receive support from teachers and education professionals, we can develop tools to manage them much more effectively,” she explains
For the entrepreneur, innovation only has value when it responds to concrete needs
“Emotional challenges do not appear overnight; they are built over time. That is why we wanted to create a solution not for the ideal school, but for the real school we experience every day in Chile.”
A Chilean innovation with global impact
The journey began with a pilot programme at a school in the city of Osorno that was facing significant challenges related to school coexistence. The results demonstrated that early identification of emotions could help prevent risk situations and strengthen support systems within educational communities
This learning process fueled Müud’s growth. Today, the platform supports more than 10,000 students and was recently validated through research conducted in partnership with a research centre in Norway. The findings showed that, after eight weeks of daily use, students strengthened skills such as self-control and emotional management
Today, the tool developed by Melania and her team is being used in schools across Chile, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and India
“We grew alongside schools, learning about their realities and needs. Knowing that a solution created in Chile can help make students’ emotions visible in different parts of the world fills us with pride,” she says
Her leadership has also received international recognition. In 2020, she was recognized as a Young Leader of the Americas by the United States Embassy, an achievement that strengthened her work in educational innovation and expanded her network of collaborators across Latin America and the Caribbean
Inspiring the next generation of leaders
For Melania Sanhueza, leadership does not mean having all the answers. Rather, it means daring to take the first step and trusting in one’s own abilities
“My message to girls is to start by getting to know themselves. The better we understand what we enjoy, what our strengths are and what skills we possess, the greater our opportunities to develop our full potential.”
She also encourages girls to trust their intuition and not wait for the perfect moment to begin
“Trust your intuition and do not be afraid to follow your own path. Do not wait until everything is perfect before moving forward. Often, taking the first step is enough to discover that we are capable of achieving far more than we ever imagined.”
Her story demonstrates that when innovation is combined with empathy and leadership, it is possible to develop solutions born in Chile that address global challenges, improve people’s lives and create new opportunities for future generations
