Conquering Her Dreams

By Sarah Brashear

Despite growing up in a small , rural town in Central

Illinois , Marcela Belén Gillen has always thought big .

Big ideas , big aspirations , and most importantly - big hair . So , when she was offered an internship with a Fortune 100 company before graduating college , no one was surprised . Before she knew it , Gillen had found a home within the massive , yellow walls at Caterpillar Inc . - the world ' s largest construction-equipment manufacturer .